Press Releases

An increasingly dense cloud of space junk is orbiting Earth and endangering telecommunications, navigation and many other satellite-dependent functions. There is no orbital garbage collection. Radar systems can detect these particles and their trajectory, then warn satellite operators of any impending collision. Fraunhofer FHR in Germany is making an essential contribution to space observation with the complementary systems GESTRA and TIRA. Scientists will present how these systems work to 4000 space experts at the International Astronautical Congress IAC from the 1. to the 5. of October 2018 in Bremen (Stand F70).

Constantly changing environments represent an enormous challenge for modern driver assistance systems. To meet these challenges, software-controlled automotive radars offer entirely new opportunities: They are compact, low-cost, and also extremely versatile and highly reconfigurable. By applying cognitive methods, they can be used to develop radars that intelligently and automatically adapt their parameters to the individual situations during operation. Fraunhofer FHR will present such an adaptive radar at the European Microwave Week at booth 33 in Madrid from September 25 – 27, 2018. The demonstrator accurately measures changing distances and positions – quickly and intelligently – while optimizing the use of resources.

When a person goes overboard, finding her or him quickly is crucial in order to have a chance of rescuing the shipwrecked person. With the SEERAD project, Fraunhofer FHR is joining forces with FH Aachen and Raytheon Anschütz GmbH to develop a new sea rescue radar that is not only capable of reliably locating individual persons or small boats over long distances but also cheaper than the current systems. With this system, small transponders located in life jackets, for instance, will reflect the signals of future maritime radars, which then receive these signals using an extension module. The scientists will present SEERAD as well as a new electronically controlled antenna for a highly accurate maritime radar at the SMM trade fair in Hamburg (hall B6, booth 319) from September 4 - 7, 2018.

With its radar-on-chip technology, Fraunhofer FHR has now opened up the advantages of radar for use in robotics as well, proving this with the EU project Smokebot. This project, conducted by international partners from research and industry as well as future users, developed a mobile robot capable of providing valuable information to emergency forces by remote control or even semiautonomously. For this, Fraunhofer FHR supplied the small radar modules, which are highly efficient in terms of energy consumption and data volumes, allowing for high-resolution 3D obstacle detection even in poor visibility. The Smokebot prototype will be tested under real operating conditions in the fire exercise building of the Dortmund fire department at the end of June 2018.

Every year, experts from around the world exchange the newest insights in radar research at the International Radar Symposium IRS, opening up this promising technology for modern applications such as autonomous driving. In 2018, the symposium organized by the German Institute of Navigation (DGON) and the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR will celebrate its 20th anniversary in Bonn. The four-day symposium chaired by Prof. Dr. Peter Knott, Executive Director of Fraunhofer FHR, kicked off yesterday with a visit to the institute in Wachtberg und its highly visible space observation radar TIRA.

The passive radar system PARASOL has been successfully approved by German Air Traffic Control. As a result, the wind energy industry now has an emission-free radar system available to reliably monitor the effective range around wind farms. PARASOL is used to control on-demand night marking (BNK) for wind turbines. The system was developed by Fraunhofer FHR in cooperation with PARASOL GmbH & Co KG.

Radar images of the Earth from the air or space or images of objects in space offer unique advantages: high-resolution images can be created at a distance of hundreds of kilometers – irrespective of weather and light conditions. 500 experts will meet this week to exchange scientific knowledge at EUSAR (European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar) in Aachen.

The researchers at Fraunhofer FHR are currently developing an innovative radar system on behalf of the Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). On completion, the system will allow 24/7 observation of near-Earth space. When put into operation at the German Aerospace Center in mid-2019, GESTRA will supply space object-related data that was previously not available – a milestone in space observation in Germany. Learn more about the new system at ILA Berlin from 25-29 April 2018.

Satellites in near-Earth orbit are at risk due to the steady increase in space debris. But their mission in the areas of telecommunications, navigation or weather forecasts is essential for society. Fraunhofer FHR therefore develops radar-based systems which allow the detection, tracking and cataloging of even the smallest particles of debris. Satellite operators who have access to high-precision orbital data for the largest possible number of these objects are in a better position to plan evasive maneuvers and prevent destructive collisions. From the 25th to the 29th of April 2018, Fraunhofer FHR and its partners will exhibit the complementary radar systems TIRA and GESTRA as well as the latest radar techniques for space observation across three stands at the ILA Berlin Air Show: Hall 4, Stand 202 (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Hall 3, Stand 302 (German Space Situational Awareness Center ) and Hall 2, Stand 203 (Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy).

In just a few weeks from now, the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere where it will to a large extent burn up. It is possible that some debris will reach the Earth's surface. Tiangong-1 is orbiting the Earth uncontrolled at a speed of approx. 29,000 km/h. Currently the prognosis relating to the time of impact currently lies within a window of several days. The scientists at Fraunhofer FHR in Wachtberg near Bonn have already been monitoring Tiangong-1 for a number of weeks with their TIRA (Tracking and Imaging Radar) system, one of the most powerful space observation radars in the world, with a view to supporting the German Space Situational Awareness Center (WRLageZ) and the ESA (European Space Agency) with their re-entry forecasts.