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Robust road-to-car communications by means of an active Ku-band RF Self-IDentification (RFSID) system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2010

Luca Roselli
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Perugia, via G. Duranti 93, I-06125 Perugia, Italy. Phone: +39-075-5853642; Fax: +39-075-5853654.
Valeria Palazzari
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Perugia, via G. Duranti 93, I-06125 Perugia, Italy. Phone: +39-075-5853642; Fax: +39-075-5853654.
Federico Alimenti*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Perugia, via G. Duranti 93, I-06125 Perugia, Italy. Phone: +39-075-5853642; Fax: +39-075-5853654.
Paolo Mezzanotte
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Perugia, via G. Duranti 93, I-06125 Perugia, Italy. Phone: +39-075-5853642; Fax: +39-075-5853654.
Matteo Comez
Affiliation:
Wireless Solutions S.r.l., via Vocabolo Pischiello 20, I-06065 Passignano sul Trasimeno (PG), Italy.
Nicola Porzi
Affiliation:
Wireless Solutions S.r.l., via Vocabolo Pischiello 20, I-06065 Passignano sul Trasimeno (PG), Italy.
*
Corresponding author: F. Alimenti Email: alimenti@diei.unipg.it

Abstract

This paper deals with a robust RFSID (Radio Frequency Self IDentification) system for road-to-car communications. The RFSID-based system operates in Ku-band and consists of a fixed transmitter, located at the road side, and of a receiver unit placed on the moving target, i.e. a car in its first proposed application. A slotted waveguide antenna array is used to illuminate the moving object at the desired position, whereas a four-patch array antenna is adopted at the receiver side. Both the antennas have been designed using numerical simulations based on a Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) algorithm. When the moving object crosses the antenna beam a triggering pulse is generated by the receiver; such a pulse can be used to reset or update the electronics aboard the vehicle and to log specific information coming from location-based systems (LBSs), into the car equipments. A digital transmission of gold sequences and a post-processing unit have been exploited so far to increase the robustness and the accuracy of the system. At this stage of the development the system benefit of extensive field tests, being adopted for some years by many top Formula 1 racing teams as a lap trigger system, used to reset the on-board electronics when the car crosses either the finishing line and peculiar path reference points. The temporal accuracy exhibited is better than 1 ms with a coverage of about 90 m.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2010

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References

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