A two-frequency radar for vehicle automatic lateral control

The use of a side-looking radar in conjunction with a sidewall reflector is one means of obtaining lateral position information for use in vehicle automatic lateral control. The principle of operation of a two-frequency radar for such use is presented along with a discussion of the reflector design and construction difficulties. Some results of the full-scale testing of this radar using two different types of reflecting surfaces are included. The performance of this radar system is compared with that of the highly accurate wire follower. In general, tracking errors on the order of twice those obtained with the wire follower were achieved. It appears that with some redesign of the radar, performance equal to or better than that of the wire follower should eventually result.