Robots that can see around corners using radio signals and AI
Doctoral students at Penn Engineering have built a new system, powered by AI and radio signals, that allows robots to view around corners, with implications for vehicle safety and industrial efficiency.
2 min. read
Penn Engineers have developed a system that lets robots see around corners using radio waves processed by AI, a capability that could improve the safety and performance of driverless cars, as well as robots operating in cluttered indoor settings like warehouses and factories.
(From left) Penn Engineering’s Zitong Lan, Haowen Lai and Mingmin Zhao.
(Image: Sylvia Zhang)
The system, called HoloRadar, enables robots to reconstruct three-dimensional scenes outside their direct line of sight, such as pedestrians rounding a corner. Unlike previous approaches to non-line-of-sight (NLOS) perception that rely on visible light, HoloRadar works reliably in darkness and under variable lighting conditions.
“Robots and autonomous vehicles need to see beyond what’s directly in front of them,” says Mingmin Zhao, assistant professor in computer and information science (CIS) in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and senior author of a paper describing HoloRadar. “This capability is essential to help robots and autonomous vehicles make safer decisions in real time.”
At the heart of HoloRadar is a counterintuitive insight into radio waves. Compared to visible light, radio signals have much longer wavelengths, a property traditionally seen as a disadvantage for imaging because it limits resolution. Zhao’s team realized that, for peering around corners, those longer wavelengths are actually an advantage.
“Because radio waves are so much larger than the tiny surface variations in walls,” says Haowen Lai, a doctoral student in CIS and co-author of the new paper, “those surfaces effectively become mirrors that reflect radio signals in predictable ways.”
In practical terms, this means that flat surfaces like walls, floors and ceilings can bounce radio signals around corners, carrying information about hidden spaces back to a robot. HoloRadar captures these reflections and reconstructs what lies beyond direct view.
“It’s similar to how human drivers sometimes rely on mirrors stationed at blind intersections,” says Lai. “Because HoloRadar uses radio waves, the environment itself becomes full of mirrors, without actually having to change the environment.”
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