All about radar and lidar of autonomous technologies

As the cost of radar and lidar technologies continues to decrease, new opportunities are emerging in various industries. One of the most significant growth areas for radar technology is in the automotive sector, as advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) and semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles drive demand. Automotive radar applications include adaptive cruise control, assisted braking, and blind-spot detection. However, as the technology of autonomous vehicles develops, there will be a need for an all-around view of other vehicles and a way of determining how they are moving.


Radar systems operate over a vast range of frequency bands, from about 5 MHz to 300 GHz. The IEEE has classified these frequency bands into several designations, including HF, VHF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, K, Ka, V, W, and mm. Microwave radar, classified as between 300 MHz to 30 GHz, can be used for imaging, non-contact measurement of chest motion to monitor breathing, detecting a person's movement in bed for sleep tracking, and heart rate measurement, among other things.


On the other hand, Lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging, operates on a different principle compared to radar. Lidar systems use pulsed time-of-flight (ToF) or FMCW techniques to detect and map objects in 3D, and they work in a similar way to radar, but while radar engineers describe their electromagnetic spectrum in terms of frequency, lidar engineers usually talk about wavelength. The lidar wavelength range is mostly in the infrared spectrum and spans 750 nm to just over 1.5 µm. The greatest advantage of Lidar over radar is its resolution, even compared to high-frequency, high-resolution radar.


In conclusion, as the cost of radar and lidar technologies continues to decrease, new opportunities are emerging in various industries. The automotive sector is predicted to be the biggest growth sector for radar in the next few years, as advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) and semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles drive demand. While Lidar has greater accuracy and speed compared to radar, both technologies have their own limitations and can be used in different applications.

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