Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2024 - 8

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
ADAS
Sensata's sensors aid blind spot monitoring for tractor-trailers
Sensata Technologies' booth at this year's IAA Transportation
tradeshow included two of the company's Precor radar sensors.
The PreView STA79 is a heavy-duty vehicle side-monitoring
system launched in May 2024 and designed to comply
with Europe-wide blind spot monitoring legislation introduced
in June 2024. The PreView Sentry 79 is a front- and
rear-monitoring system. Both systems operate on the 79-GHz
band as the nomenclature suggests.
PreView STA79 can cover up to three vehicle zones: a configurable
center zone, which can monitor the length of the
vehicle, and two further zones that can be independently set
to align with individual customer needs. The system offers a
180-degree field of view to eliminate blind spots along the
vehicle sides and a built-in measurement unit that will increase
the alert level when turning toward an object even
when the turn indicator is not used. The system also features
trailer mitigation to reduce false positive alerts on the trailer
when turning. The system is UN 151 compliant.
The system's side turn assist operation will alert the driver to
moving vulnerable road users at speeds up to 19 mph (30
km/h), while ignoring stationary objects such as parked cars
and street signs. At greater speeds, the system is optimized for
blind spot collision mitigation during lane changes and merging.
Again, the system prioritizes
alerts on moving vehicles,
ignoring stationary objects.
The Preview Sentry 79
sensor features a fully configurable
detection zone and
can detect objects at distances
up to 40 meters (131
ft). The width of the detection
zone can be adjusted to
suit different vehicle types.
The system can detect objects
in adverse weather
such as rain, fog and snow
and is UN 159 compliant.
PreView STA79 radar includes a
built-in inertial measurement unit
(IMU) to increase the alert level
when turning into an object even
when the turn signal is not used.
Imaging radar on the rise
Sensata product manager for
radar Jamen McDermott discussed
some up-and-coming
technologies with Truck & OffHighway
Engineering. " Of
course, we have lidar when we are talking about higher levels of
autonomy, when we are trying to define the entire picture around
us - basically, building a topographical map of the surrounding
environment, " McDermott said. " Imaging radar is another technology
that we're seeing more of and there are a lot of start-ups
in imaging radar. It takes a resolution that is closer to lidar. "
He noted that imaging radar incorporates some of the positives
from radar that lidar falls short on. " Lidar struggles in
certain environmental conditions such as rain, fog and snow, "
he said. " There are quite a few things that impact lidar that
don't impact imaging radar, or radar in general in the same
way, so we're starting to see that pick up in the market. It's
still fresh, still new and needs to be tested, so there's a lot to
be done with imaging radar. "
Logically, combining these systems so that the shortcomings
of one system can be covered by the strengths of another
would offer a good developmental direction, McDermott said.
" If you look at fusion, it's about the pros and cons of all those
technologies and bringing them together to pick up where the
other one leaves off, so that you can further the calculations
and try to predict accidents better and work better in those
harsh environmental conditions, " he explained. " Then in the
end have, if it's warning the operator of an object, fewer false
positive detections, so that when the operator is warned, it is
really something that they should be warned about. "
For autonomous vehicle functions, accuracy becomes even
Three adjustable areas of interest allow the STA79 sensor to be
configured with a center zone matching the length of the vehicle and
front and rear zones independently set for unique requirements.
8 December 2024
more critical. " Once the control has been taken from the input
sensors, it [needs to be] accurate because you don't want the
brakes to slam on for no good reason, " McDermott said.
John Kendall
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
ALL IMAGES: SENSATA
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2024

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