Implementation and Characterization of Novel Acoustic Imaging through Beamformers for Automotive Applications

Traffic congestion is a severe problem on European freeways. According to a study of the European Commission, its impact will increase even up to 10% in the year 2010. Since building new infrastructure is no longer an appropriate option in most (Western) countries, there are many approaches towards a more effective road usage and a more 'intelligent' way of increasing the capacity of the road network. Examples of advanced traffic control systems are, e.g., 'intelligent' speed limits, adaptive ramp metering, or dynamic routing. This paper focuses on a proposal of a vehicle acoustic imaging that allows driver to recognize obstacles and other cars around him in a safe way. The proposed front end electronic and sensing system are included in a specific architecture supervised by a microcontroller. The used algorithm for gathering data belongs to LCMV and LCMP beamforming methods.