Patent ID: 6429804
Filing Date: 2002-08-06
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
A radar apparatus mounted on a vehicle for exploring a target around the vehicle, the radar apparatus comprises:an antenna having a high gain in a predetermined beam direction, for transmitting an exploration signal in the beam direction and receiving a reflected signal by the target in the exploration signal; a scanning section for change the beam direction into a plurality of beam directions of the antenna within a predetermined limit to perform a scan; a direction detecting section for detecting the beam direction varied by the scanning section; an exploration control section for controling the scanning section to repeatedly change the beam direction of the antenna into the plurality of beam direction with in the predetermined limit and to explore the target in the plurality of beam directions different from each other; and a target recognizing section for calculating a range to the target based on the reflected signal from the target received by the antenna and the exploration signal transmitted from the antenna, the target recognizing section for recognizing the target based on the range to the target and the beam direction of the antenna detected by the direction detecting section.