Distribution-Based Iron Road Structure Recognition Method Using Automotive Radar Sensor

In this paper, we propose an iron road structure recognition method using an automotive radar sensor. The specific road structures made of iron, such as tunnels, soundproof walls, and guardrails, have periodic steel-framed structures. These periodic structures generate unwanted reflected signals, called radar clutter. This clutter degrades the detection performance of the automotive radar and leads to misdetection of targets. Since the performance of the radar is not fully guaranteed within those iron structures, additional signal processing is needed to mitigate the effect of the clutter. Prior to that, an efficient method to recognize the iron structures using the radar must be established. Thus, we suggest an effective iron road structure recognition method based on the concept that received signal distributions in iron structures differ from the signal distribution in a normal road. From the measurement results on actual roads, our method well distinguishes the iron road structures from the normal roads.