Short-Range Millimeter-Wave Radar Perception in a Polar Environment

TLDR: In this paper, the utility of millimeter-wave radar as a robotic sensor for obstacle avoidance and navigation in polar settings is discussed. But the authors focus on short-range radar perception for a mobile robot in an Antarctic environment.

Abstract: Autonomous vehicle operations in Antarctica challenge robotic perception. Flying ice and snow, changing illumination due to low sun angles and lack of contrast degrade stereo and laser sensing. Millimeter-wave radar offers remarkable advantages as a robotic perception modality because it is not as sensitive to the aforementioned conditions. Experiments with millimeter-wave radar in an Antarctic environment show minimal degradation of millimeter-wave sensing capabilities under blowing-snow conditions, as well as backscatter obtained from polar-terrain surfaces at grazing angles and detection of obstacles commonly found in polar areas. This paper presents issues relevant to short-range radar perception for a mobile robot in an Antarctic environment. The article describes the experiments and data-analysis procedures, and draws conclusions on the utility of millimeter-wave radar as a robotic sensor for obstacle avoidance and navigation in polar settings. Keywords–Millimeter-wave radar, millimeter-wave imaging, radar scattering, mobile robots, robot sensing.