Cramér-Rao Bound Analysis of Radars for Extended Vehicular Targets With Known and Unknown Shape

Due to their shorter operating range and large bandwidth, automotive radars can resolve many reflections from targets of interest, mainly vehicles. This calls for the use extended-target models in place simpler more widely-adopted point-like target models. However, despite some preliminary work, fundamental connection between radar’s accuracy as a function vehicle state (range, orientation, shape) radar properties remains largely unknown extended targets. In this we first devise mathematically tractable analytical model with arbitrary shape, modeled an parameterized by center position, orientation (heading) perimeter contour. We show that derived expressions backscatter signal are correctly capture effects extended-vehicle shape. Analytical derivations exact approximate hybrid Cramér-Rao bounds contour provided, which reveal connections case uncover main dependencies received energy, array size. The theoretical investigation is performed on two different cases known Insightful simulation results finally presented validate findings, including analysis diversity effect multiple sensing target.