Ship Monitor Radar for Bridge Collision Avoidance

Bridge collision avoidance is increasingly urgent as the total bridge amount and marine traffic increase. Ship detection and tracking are vital techniques for bridge collision avoidance applications. This paper introduces a linear frequency modulation continuous wave radar (LFMCW) designed especially for the applications. The system design considerations and the associated signal processing algorithms are described. An experiment was conducted on a bridge over the Xiangjiang River. The radar can not only output backscattering amplitude image as a traditional marine radar, but also output trajectories of multiple ships. Bridge collision threat can be evaluated by using the ship length and velocity information from the trajectories. Experimental results show that the radar can satisfy the requirements for bridge collision early warning.