Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: jfox@netcom.com (Jeff Fox)
Subject: Re: Radar on a Chip?
Message-ID: <jfoxD5r4Ax.28E@netcom.com>
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References: <D5GM64.BEs@mv.mv.com> <3kils7$fsu@st-james.comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 18:20:56 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <3kils7$fsu@st-james.comp.vuw.ac.nz> empty@mu.sans.vuw.ac.nz 
           (Malcolm Taylor) writes:
>
>Ideal? Radar is ideal if you want to scan very large areas. For robots in
>small environments radar will probably not have the required accuracy. It
>would not have much greater accuracy than GPS esp. since it is a small
>silicon built version. If you look at the principles of radar operation
>you will find that to get a 1 meter accuracy you would need approx 300MHz
>timing, (3ns response time) not that easy on a silicon chip. Even if you
>got this speed, you would have a very power hungry item for your robot.
>(compare the latest processors that have speeds of 100MHz and their power
>consumption). The only use that I could see for them would be large scale
>robots (ie working or roving etc). 
>	Still it is an interesting development.
>
>Malcolm

I agree with Mr. Taylor about the problems in accuracy of Radar for robots
in small environments.  But I would like to point out that not all fast
micros are power hungry.  MuP21 is a 50mw 100MHz processor, and we hope
to have a 300Mhz <100mw (microcontroller priced) processor out soon.

I also have the impression from the Popluar Science article on the
radar chip that you won't need a super fast micro to interface to
the proposed radar chip.  But until it is available ...  But yes,
you would need a very fast micro to bit bang radar frequencies!

Jeff Fox
Ultra Technology
2510 10th St.
Berkeley CA 94710
(510) 848-2149
jfox@netcom.com
http://www.dnai.com/~jfox
