PELICAN

In outdoor environment traditional perception systems are reaching technical limitations: ultrasounds are disturbed by wind while optical devices such as laser or vision are sensitive to changes in lighting, rain, mist or dust. Cemagref has been involved for several years in research to bring innovative solutions to the problem of perception in external environment. We have thus developed an original radar imager, based on frequency modulated continuous wave technique. Once mounted on a vehicle this radar equipped with a rotating antenna, is able to draw a 2D mapping of the environment by using the displacement of the carrier. The advances made during this program can be regarded today as sufficient to file a patent and bring us close to a technology transfer. The objective here is to achieve PELICAN radar, which will be a synthesis of research conducted by Cemagref in the field of radar during previous projects so as to lead to a system close to a marketable product. Developments carried out within this program would contribute to a new perception system able to solve some problems in rescue robotics (earthquake, firefighting…). It could also deal with new needs expressed in the environmental domain. To demonstrate the potential of the Radar, we have chosen to associate with an environmental application of mapping in rivers monitoring. The work will be supported by a team involved in protecting the results, using a strategy adapted to the project.