Patent · US Expired

Highway vehicle guidance system

US5684490A · kind A · utility

71Cited by
15References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 1, 1995
Grant dateNov 4, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 1, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01S2013/9329
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A radar highway motor vehicle guidance apparatus for guiding a land vehicle along a roadway using a forward looking, lateral position sensing, monopulse tracking radar guidance apparatus which transmits radar pulses forward of the vehicle. The pulses are reflected back to the vehicle by a stripe distributed along the roadway. The stripe is a frequency selective surface which generates retro-reflective grating lobes at an operating frequency of the tracking radar. Operating the radar at two frequencies allows the radar to look at regions spaced at two different distances from the front of the vehicle. Highway related information may be encoded in the frequency selective surface by variations in the shape or dimensions of the frequency selective stripe morphology in order to modulate the reflected signal with highway information which is then also detected at the radar receiver. Target discrimination is enhanced by using pseudo random codes and matching antenna polarization with stripe polarization.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.