Press Releases

The millimeter wave scanner SAMMI® takes center stage at the presentation of the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR at the international trade fair for quality assurance CONTROL in Stuttgart from May 7 to 10, 2019. At the booth the institute shares with the Fraunhofer Vision Alliance, Fraunhofer FHR’s scientists will showcase the possibilities of millimeter wave technology for the detection of foreign objects and imperfections in products for quality assurance.

Premiere in the USA: The Fraunhofer Institute for High-Frequency Physics and Radar Technology FHR is participating in the IEEE Radar Conference 2019 in Boston, USA, from April 22nd to 26th, with three innovative radar applications, two talks and for the first time with its own booth at a fair in the USA. Organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the largest international professional association of engineers, the 2019 IEEE Radar Conference is one of the most important radar conferences worldwide.

Sensors in autonomous vehicles have to be extremely reliable, since in the future motorists will no longer constantly monitor traffic while underway. In the past these sensors were subjected to arduous road tests. The new ATRIUM testing device from Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR now makes it possible to move a large portion of these road tests to the laboratory. ATRIUM puts on a show for the vehicle’s radar sensor, generating artificial scenery that comes very close to the actual conditions encountered in street traffic.

„Deorbiting“ Systems are to ensure less debris and more safety for satellites in space. Integrated into the space systems, these should allow them to crash deliberately after their mission ends. The commitment of the space operators to these measures and thus the associated technologies are still relatively young. With the space observation radar TIRA, the Fraunhofer FHR supports manufacturers and operators with analyzes of the systems in use, as such, providing important information on their correct function and how they can be further optimized for their important task. Their space radars TIRA and GESTRA present researchers with examples of their use at the ESA Neo and Debris Detection Conference from 22 to 24 January 2019, in Darmstadt.

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.