The Millimeter Wave Beam Steering Antenna System for ISM RADARs Assisting LIDAR Based Navigation of Mobile Robots

Abstract

The Mobile Robots have been extensively used in manufacturing plants for inter-logistic transportation in the recent years. This paper addresses both safety improvement and navigation accuracy enhancement of such vehicles by using the proposed RADAR antenna system to assist the commercial LIDAR sensor. In the constructed system, the K-band beam steering antenna system integrated with the ISM band RADAR are used as a complementary to the 2-D Area Scanning LIDAR for natural navigation enhancement and for blind spot detection against the collusion risks during the rotations. Such combination of different sensors improves environmental consciousness of autonomous robots and gives 360° of sensing ability. The phase one prototype employing a 2D LIDAR is tested in the field to map the blind spots around the vehicle. To mitigate the collusion risks in the blind spots a RADAR system including the millimeter wave beam steering MiMo antenna array is proposed. This paper discusses the system level LIDAR sensor outputs and focuses the design of beam steering K-band antenna system part of the RADAR sensor.