Synthetic Aperture Radar for Automotive Applications

The usability of radars as imagers in modern autonomous vehicles has seen a significant increase in the past two decades towards achieving full autonomy. Mainly, millimeter-wave imagers are better than optical imagers when it comes to the all-weather operation capability as well as the ambient-light independence. However, conventional mm-wave radars require a large number of antennas elements to achieve descent angular resolution. A solution to reduce the required number of antennas element is to use the motion of the vehicle to take snapshots a different position and combine them later. This concept is called Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) as motion of the vehicle is used to emulate the presence of a larger number of antennas element while the real number of antennas on the radar is very low. This synthetic array can produce high resolution images of the environment. 

Unfortunately, non-ideal motion of the car (e.g. vibration) as well as motion of the obstacles in the environments degrade the performances of conventional SAR algorithms. Your task will consist in evaluating the limitations of conventional SAR processing and propose new algorithms to produce high resolution radar images. The proposed solution will be validated by simulation and processing of real dataset.

You will be part of a large IMEC team working on the research, implementation and prototyping of future radar systems composed by experts in digital and analog mm-wave design, radar and wireless communication systems and signal processing.

The successful candidate must show a strong understanding of signal processing and linear algebra. Proficiency with MATLAB or Python is a must. Some knowledge of radar concepts is a plus.
 

Type of work: Modelling, simulation, and signal processing.

Type of Project: Combination of internship and thesis

Master program: Computer Science; Electrotechnics/Electrical Engineering

Master's degree: Master of Science; Master of Engineering Science

Duration:  6 months

For more information or application, please contact the supervising scientist Adnan Al baba (adnan.albaba@imec.be).

Imec allowance will be provided for students studying at a non-Belgian university.