RCS Characteristics of Road Debris at 79GHz Millimeter-wave Radar

Debris may cause accidents or disasters on highway and runway. Many debris-related traffic accidents have actually happened on highway and we also remember the Concord jet crash accident happened in 2000 which was caused by a metal debris. These accidents may be avoidable using 79GHz ultra-wideband (UWB) radar since it offers high range-resolution and all-weather capability (known as all-weather sensor). This paper presents 79GHz radar-cross-section (RCS) characteristics essential for detectable range estimation of road debris. For the radar system design of debris-detection and ranging, the knowledge of RCS measure of various road debris is of great importance. We conducted RCS measurement for typical road debris at 79GHz and investigated the RCS fluctuation of road debris for vertical and horizontal polarizations. Please note that there is no report regarding to the 79GHz RCS of road debris as far as the authors know. The 79GHz RCS are also compared with 24GHz RCS.