Impact of Antenna Gain Distortions due to Bumper Presence in DoA Estimation for Automotive Radar
N. Ma (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Y. Aslan – Mentor (Microwave Sensing, Signals & Systems)
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the impact of realistic electromagnetic impairments, such as bumper obstruction and rainwater deposition, on automotive MIMO radar Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation. This study incorporates high-fidelity realized gain patterns directly into FMCW MIMO radar simulations and assessing Beamscan, MUSIC, and MVDR under both deterministic and stochastic scenarios. The methodology includes CST modeling of antennas and bumpers with water-layer and droplet effects, deterministic DoA analysis at representative high- and low-gain angles, and statistical simulations of RMSE and MAE to evaluate algorithm robustness. Results show that Beamscan is sensitive to amplitude loss, while MUSIC consistently achieves the lowest RMSE and MAE. MVDR algorithm achieves higher RMSE compared to MUSIC, indicating lower overall accuracy, yet it is relatively insensitive to signal amplitude attenuation. The framework provides a replicable pipeline linking EM level antenna degradation to DoA performance. These findings provide practical guidance for radar system design and highlight the necessity of optimized signal processing strategies for reliable automotive angle estimation in real life scenorio.