A High-Precision Long Range Cooperative Radar System for Rail Crane Distance Measurement

We present the implementation of a cooperative radar system on a rail crane for distance measurements in an industrial environment. The measurement approach is based on the dual-ramp frequency-modulated continuous-wave prinicple, using identical sensor-nodes at the endpoints of the range of interest. Pseudo-range information is exchanged via a dedicated data-link between these stations. At the sensor-node a flexible high-performance signal processing and remote management engine is implemented. The system setup is controlled by a single host-PC, which is used as a man-machine interface for configuration of the remotely controlled measurement stations, system surveillance, and visualization of the measurement data. On-site measurements at distances up to 1000 m with an accuracy better than 2 cm confirm the performance of the ranging system. Furthermore the results are verified by simulation.