How to Connect Different Radar Sensors

In previous issues of the radar blog, we have addressed how the number of sensors in general and Radar modules, in particular, will be dramatically increased to achieve higher levels of autonomy and safety. In the next years, radar modules will be added to go from a basic configuration, with only a forward-looking radar with level L1 autonomy and 1 to 4 NCAP (new car assessment program) rating to up to level L2+ autonomy and NCAP 4-5 in standard cars and levels L3-L4 of autonomy and NCAP 5 in the premium segment.

The performance of the central computing units is expected to grow at a rapid pace with the centralization of the vehicle’s functions. Therefore, the processing of the data can be carried out in a more efficient way if the computation is not directly performed in the sensor modules. This leads to an evolution in the car E/E architecture to a distributed architecture. Of course, the migration to the fully distributed architecture will take a long time and is expected to be completed after 2030. But until then, some partial implementations will appear in the market.

As a first step, some domain controllers are for specific functions such as ADAS. Then the number of domain controllers will increase along with the level of autonomy of the car. With requirements for level L2+ of autonomy, zone controllers will be introduced along with the domain controllers, leading to the final step, centralized E/E architecture with the vehicle’s central computer connected to the sensors through the zone control units. This evolution is illustrated . Of course, this will also be coupled with an exponential increase in software complexity and will require high-capacity networking in the vehicle.

With the new E/E architectures being introduced, part of the radar processing shown will not take place on the radar module (edge computing) but will instead be delocalized for more efficient computations. The amount of processing in each module or control unit will be determined by the desired performance and by the available architecture.

1.2 Smart Radar sensors
Today’s radar architecture is based on separate radar modules distributed around the vehicle. Each module has its own radar transceiver and the capability to process the detected data on board, either using a single chip or with a separate microcontroller or SoC on the same module.

The processed radar data are then transferred from each “smart radar sensor” to a remote domain control unit for further processing and fusion using a CAN bus. The different processing steps and where they are performed are illustrated .

If enough sensors are used, the obstacles in the environment of the vehicle can be identified. For example, in the case shown in Figure 6, the ADAS ECU will receive the information of the objects detected by the forward-looking long-range radar, and from four corners of short- and mid-range radars, to create the full image of the surroundings.

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