Microwave Sensor for Non-Contact Vehicle Measurements

TheMicrostar II is designed to offer measurements of vehicle dynamics parameterssuch as driving performance, longitudinal determinations, fuel consumption andoff-road vehicle speed and distance measurements on jeeps, quads and ATVs, aswell as industrial utility, military transport and agricultural vehicles.

Thedesign of the Corrsys-Datron Microstar II incorporates use ofDoppler radar effect technology within a planar antenna system, which projectstwo radar beams at 45 degree angles to measure relative movement between thesensor and test surface. The non-contact system consists of the sensorhead antenna and a new Corrsys-Datron sensor electronics unit with 2.0B CANbus,RS-232 serial port and a full-speed USB 2.0 port. Upon striking the testsurface, beams are reflected back to the sensor antenna. The resultant doublefrequency, which is equal to the difference of sent and received frequencies,is directly proportional to speed. The gained signal is then converted todesired dimension via a high-performance onboard RISC digital signal processorand sent to corresponding analog (-10 to 10 V) or digital (1 to 1,000 Pulse/m)TTL outputs, with automatic compensation for both mounting and pitch-angleerrors.

Witha working distance range of 300 to 1200 mm and a speed range of 0.5 to 400 km/hat a measurement frequency of 250 Hz, the Microstar II can be used in utilityand off-road vehicle applications requiring larger stand-off distances. It canalso be used within more challenging environmental conditions, such as inwooded, mountainous or other heavy terrain areas, where use of traditional GPSand optical sensing technologies are simply not possible. The sensor can alsoaccommodate additional connections, such as an interface for fuelflow-measurement systems (for fuel consumption tests) and trigger inputs forlight barriers or brake switches.

Whenused with supplied CeCalWin Pro Software, the Microstar II functions as acomplete vehicle data acquisition and evaluation system. Associated softwarefunctions enable test parameters and definitions to be permanently saved, alongwith charts, plots and other online displays and evaluations. In addition, allmeasured signals can be saved and evaluated off-line.

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