1221 Mw Keysight Radar Scene Emulator Promo 61c3a6b178559

Keysight’s Radar Scene Emulator Speeds Path to Full Vehicle Autonomy

Dec. 22, 2021

The system provides automotive OEMs with full-scene emulation to lab test complex, real-world scenarios and accelerate the overall speed of testing.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

Check out our CES 2022 coverage.

No one wants to get to fully autonomous vehicles faster than automotive OEMs. Now, Keysight Technologies is launching its Radar Scene Emulator, which enables automakers to lab test complex, real-world driving scenarios, accelerating the overall speed of test.

Full-scene emulation in the lab is critical to developing the robust radar sensors and algorithms needed to realize advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and/or autonomous driving (AD) capabilities. Keysight's full-scene emulator combines hundreds of miniature radio frequency (RF) front ends into a scalable emulation screen representing a scenario with real-world complexity—up to 512 objects and distances as close as 1.5 meters.

Automotive companies understand how complex it is to test autonomous driving algorithms, and the safety issues at stake. Using full scene rendering that emulates near and far targets across a wide continuous field of view (FOV), Keysight's Radar Scene Emulator enables customers to rapidly test automotive radar sensors integrated in autonomous driving systems with highly complex multi-target scenes.

Keysight's Radar Scene Emulator employs patented technology that shifts from an approach centered on object detection via target simulation to traffic scene emulation, offering key benefits to automotive OEMs in several respects:

The Radar Scene Emulator allows radar sensors to see more with a wider, continuous field of view (FOV) and supports both near and far targets. This eliminates the gaps in a radar's vision and enables improved training of algorithms to detect and differentiate multiple objects in dense, complex scenes. As a result, autonomous vehicle decisions can be made based on the complete picture, not just what the test equipment sees.
Testing radar sensors against a limited number of targets provides an incomplete view of driving scenarios and masks the complexity of the real world. Keysight's Radar Scene Emulator allows OEMs to emulate real-world driving scenes in the lab with variations of traffic density, speed, distance, and total number of targets. Testing can be completed early for common to corner case scenes, while minimizing risk.
With the Radar Scene Emulator, OEMs gain a deterministic real-world environment for lab testing of complex scenes that today can only be tested on the road. Its test approach allows OEMs to significantly accelerate ADAS/AD algorithm learning by testing scenarios earlier with complex repeatable high-density scenes, with objects stationary or in motion, varying environmental characteristics, while eliminating inefficiencies from manual or robotic automation.
The ability to distinguish between obstacles on the road needs to be tested for a smooth and fast transition towards vehicle autonomy (i.e., Levels 4 and 5 autonomy as designated by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)). Keysight addresses this technology gap with point clouds (multiple reflections per object), which improves resolution for each object.

Keysight will demonstrate the new Radar Scene Emulator for the first time at CES 2022, Booth #4169, Las Vegas Convention Center, West Hall.

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our contributor's packet, in which you'll find an article template and lots more useful information on how to properly prepare content for us, and send to me along with a signed release form.

About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.