A Vehicle Headway Control System Using Q-Band Primary Radar

This paper deals with some work currently being carried out at the Lucas Group Research Centre into the control of vehicle headway using Q-band primary radar. Earlier work is described in which a “sawtooth” frequency-modulated continuous wave radar system and analog controller were fitted to a Ford Zodiac with automatic transmission and used to investigate the viability of such a system. This is compared with later work in which a miniature radar of improved performance and a digital microprocessor control system are fitted to a Triumph 2.5 PI. The latter approach is enabling several types of control law and radar modulation parameters to be tried so that the overall ability of primary radar systems to cope with varying road conditions can be ascertained.