A mobile ground-based radar sensor for detection and tracking of moving objects

The detection and tracking of moving objects (DATMO) in an outdoor environment from a mobile robot are difficult tasks because of the wide variety of dynamic objects. A reliable discrimination of mobile and static detections without any prior knowledge is often conditioned by a good position estimation obtained using Global Positionning System/Differential Global Positioning System (GPS/DGPS), proprioceptive sensors, inertial sensors or even the use of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms. In this article a solution of the DATMO problem is presented to perform this task using only a microwave radar sensor. Indeed, this sensor provides images of the environment from which Doppler information can be extracted and interpreted in order to obtain not only velocities of detected objects but also the robot's own velocity.