Radar Sensor Sub-system Segmentation for Fault Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Radar sensors in vehicles face challenges in maintaining reliability and low failure rates, especially in automated driving applications, where errors can lead to undesirable decisions and communication termination, exceeding safety standards like ISO 26262's ASIL-B or ASIL-C levels.
Innovation Solution
A radar sensor system comprising multiple sub-sensor systems that can independently switch between normal and silent operations, with a data fusion device generating output data only from sub-sensor systems in normal operation, thereby isolating faulty systems and reducing overall failure rates and increasing availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a radar sensor terminates communication entirely when an error occurs, then the system enters a safe silent state, but the overall reliability and availability of the sensor system decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The radar sensor system is divided into multiple independent sub-sensor systems (first sub-sensor system, second sub-sensor system), each capable of autonomous operation. When one sub-sensor system detects an error and enters silent operation, the other sub-sensor systems continue to provide sensor data, thus maintaining system availability while ensuring safety through isolation of the faulty component.
2Reliability
If multiple sub-sensor systems are used with independent error handling, then the overall failure rate decreases, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into multiple independent sub-sensor systems with identical functional capabilities, reducing the need for complex inter-dependent architectures. Each sub-sensor system operates autonomously with its own error handling, simplifying the overall system design while improving reliability through redundancy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameter from single-source sensor data to multi-source fused sensor data. By fusing data from multiple independent sub-sensor systems, the system achieves higher reliability without requiring complex decision-making logic, as the fusion process naturally handles the combination of independent data streams.
3Measurement precision
If sensor data from all sub-sensor systems is fused, then measurement precision improves, but the system becomes vulnerable to propagation of errors
Solution Approach 1:
The error-prone sub-sensor system is extracted from the data fusion process when it enters silent operation due to an error. The data fusion device exclusively fuses sensor data from sub-sensor systems in normal operation, preventing error propagation while maintaining measurement precision through fusion of reliable data sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback through the control device that monitors the operational state of each sub-sensor system. When a sub-sensor system enters silent operation, this feedback information is used by the data fusion device to adjust which data streams are fused, dynamically preventing error propagation while maintaining optimal measurement precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A radar sensor system and a method for operating a radar sensor system. The radar sensor system includes: at least one first sub-sensor system and a second sub-sensor system, each for generating sensor data, each sub-sensor system including an antenna array including at least one receiving antenna and at least one transmitting antenna; a control device, by which each sub-sensor system is independently transferrable from a normal operation into a silent operation; and a data fusion device, which is designed to fuse the sensor data exclusively of the sub-sensor systems during the normal operation with one another for generating output data.