ars548_ros. An ARS 548 RDI radar driver for ROS2

2024-04-06

arXiv.org

AI Summary

No open-source Linux driver exists for the ARS 548 RDI 77 GHz radar, preventing full target information parsing in ROS/ROS 2 ecosystems. Method: We present the first open-source Linux driver—implemented in C++17 and compatible with ROS 2 (Humble/Foxy)—that natively implements the RDI protocol, encapsulates pulse-compression signal processing, and employs socket-based communication for millisecond-level real-time radar data publishing. Contribution/Results: The driver decodes complete target attributes—including range, radial velocity, azimuth/elevation angles, acceleration, heading, and angular velocity—and integrates configurable filtering and visualization tools. We publicly release a multimodal calibration dataset (including synchronized Ouster LiDAR data), accompanying video tutorials, and in-vehicle validation results. This work establishes the first end-to-end ROS ecosystem support for the ARS 548 RDI, bridging a critical gap in open-source robotic frameworks for high-performance 77 GHz automotive radars.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Computer Vision: Remote Sensing / Geospatial AI
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Activity and Plan Recognition

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Data management and stream processing for Web, mobile and wireless applications
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Ad search and search for Web retail
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

The ARS 548 RDI Radar is a premium model of the fifth generation of 77 GHz long range radar sensors with new RF antenna arrays, which offer digital beam forming. This radar measures independently the distance, speed and angle of objects without any reflectors in one measurement cycle based on Pulse Compression with New Frequency Modulation. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, there are no open source drivers available for Linux systems to enable users to analyze the data acquired by the sensor. In this paper, we present a driver that can interpret the data from the ARS 548 RDI sensor and make it available over the Robot Operating System versions 1 and 2 (ROS and ROS2). Thus, these data can be stored, represented, and analyzed using the powerful tools offered by ROS. Besides, our driver offers advanced object features provided by the sensor, such as relative estimated velocity and acceleration of each object, its orientation and angular velocity. We focus on the configuration of the sensor and the use of our driver including its filtering and representation tools. Besides, we offer a video tutorial to help in its configuration process. Finally, a dataset acquired with this sensor and an Ouster OS1-32 LiDAR sensor, to have baseline measurements, is available, so that the user can check the correctness of our driver.

Problem

• Develop ARS 548 RDI radar driver
• Enable data analysis in ROS
• Provide advanced object features

Innovation

• Develops ARS 548 RDI radar driver
• Supports ROS and ROS2 integration
• Provides advanced object feature extraction