Abstract
The improvement of the angular resolution of radar sensors is one of the crucial goals of current radar research. A promising approach to achieve this goal is inspired by the ears of a fly called <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Ormia ochracea</i> . The working principle was adapted for antennas, and the so-called biomimetic antenna arrays (BMAAs) aroused the interest of several research groups. In this work, BMAAs are incorporated into multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) arrays, a very common approach of improving the angular resolution, to gain more degrees of freedom in array design. The MIMO BMAAs are modeled utilizing the effective biomimetic antenna distance, a fundamentally new measure introduced in this article to translate the special biomimetic phase progression into a spatial quantity. We present straightforward antenna configurations but also describe how a genetic algorithm can be utilized to optimize both antenna positions and BMAA parameters. The proposed arrays show various beneficial effects such as a wider angular range for unambiguous angle estimation or a narrower beamwidth. The impact of MIMO BMAAs on the angular resolution is thoroughly analyzed both theoretically and by radar measurements in the range of 77 GHz. The measurements confirm the modeling method very well and show a significant increase in the angular separability.
Highlights
R ADAR sensors have become a standard sensor in both automotive and industrial applications, as they are insensitive to rough atmospheric conditions such as fog, dust, smoke, and occasional steam [1]
OPTIMIZED multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) BMAAS AND REALIZATIONS To show the achievable behavior of the MIMO biomimetic antenna arrays (BMAAs) two exemplary, general layouts were introduced in Fig. 4 and their ambiguity function (AF) were presented in Figs. 5 and 6 using the values of Table III
It has been shown that the special phase progression for BMAAs can be translated to an angle-dependent antenna spacing of the biomimetically coupled antennas
Summary
R ADAR sensors have become a standard sensor in both automotive and industrial applications, as they are insensitive to rough atmospheric conditions such as fog, dust, smoke, and occasional steam [1]. The MIMO principle is applied to enlarge the aperture and the principle of biomimetic antenna arrays (BMAAs) is exploited Such antenna arrays mimicking the hearing mechanism of the fly Ormia ochracea showed superior angle estimation behavior in various concepts [9], [10]. It is not desirable to use BMCs depending on antenna mutual coupling This would require closely spaced antennas and restrict the possible antenna positions within the virtual aperture significantly. The BMAA principle improves the angular sensitivity in a limited angular range for which, the output power is reduced For this reason, applying biomimetic coupling is suitable for near-field applications with a moderate angular range of interest.
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