Plasma Generator with Dielectric Rim and FSS Electrode for Enhanced RCS Reduction Effect

In this study, a method was experimentally verified for further reducing the radar cross-section (RCS) of a two-dimensional planar target by using a dielectric rim in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma generator using a frequency selective surface (FSS) as an electrode. By designing the frequency selective surface such that the passbands of the radar signal match, it is possible to minimize the effect of the conductor electrode, in order to maximize the RCS reduction effect due to the plasma. By designing the FSS to be independent of the polarization, the effect of RCS reduction can be insensitive to the polarization of the incoming wave. Furthermore, by introducing a dielectric rim between the FSS electrode and the target, an additional RCS reduction effect is achieved. By fabricating the proposed plasma generator, an RCS reduction effect of up to 6.4 dB in X-band was experimentally verified.

Design of Yaw and Tilt Alignment Inspection System for a Low-Resolution 3D LiDAR Using Planar Target

It is crucial to attach a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a 3D sensor for a mobile platform such as robot and vehicle within the acceptable misalignment to detect the relative positions of surrounding obstacles accurately. This paper proposes a novel inspection method to estimate the yaw and tilt alignment of a LiDAR after the sensor attachment. The proposed method uses a planar target board to estimate the yaw and tilt angles of a low-resolution LiDAR with milli-degree precision. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the accuracy and precision of the proposed method with the designed test-bench that can control the reference pointing angle of the LiDAR from −10 to 10 degrees. The experiment results on Velodyne VLP-16, a low-resolution LiDAR with 16 channels, showed that the proposed system estimated the yaw and tilt angles within accuracy and precision of 0.1 degrees.