Computing device for a radar sensor

1 . A computing device for a radar sensor for identifying disruptions of the radar sensor through blocking or interference, comprising:

at least one interface configured to receive radar data from the radar sensor; and

at least one processing device configured to:

determine at least one characteristic figure for a range of values in a noise distribution in the radar data, in which at most only a few and/or at most only weakly reflecting objects are present;

evaluate the characteristic figure to identify a disruption of the radar sensor;

determine a type of disruption in a disrupted radar sensor on a basis of at least one leakage signal, wherein the leakage signal occurs due to a coupling of an output radar signal of a transmitter module of the radar sensor into a receiver module of the radar sensor; and

compare an average increase in the noise level in a predefined frequency range with at least one upper threshold level and at least one lower threshold level in order to determine the type of disruption.

2 . The computing device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processing device is configured to evaluate the characteristic figure by:

comparing the characteristic figure for the range of values in the noise distribution with an equivalent characteristic figure for an equivalent range of values in a reference noise distribution with respect to a disruption threshold value in order to identify the disruption of the radar sensor.

3 . The computing device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processing device is configured to:

update the reference noise distribution with a noise distribution in a current radar cycle on a basis of an undisrupted radar sensor using moving averaging.

4 . The computing device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processing device is configure to:

classify the disruption as blocking in response to the upper threshold value being exceeded by the average increase in the noise level in the predetermined frequency range; and

classify the disruption as interference in response to the average increase in the noise level falling below a lower threshold value in the predetermined frequency range.

5 . The computing device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processing device is configured to:

determine a distance from the radar sensor to a blocking object in the case of a blocking of the radar sensor on a basis of a characteristic modulation in the noise distribution.

6 . A radar sensor comprising the computing device according to claim 1 .

7 . An automated vehicle comprising the radar sensor according to claim 6 .

8 . An automated vehicle comprising the computing device according to claim 1 .

9 . The automated vehicle according to claim 8 comprising at least one radar sensor without a computing device.

10 . The automated vehicle according to claim 8 , comprising:

at least one vehicle control unit, wherein the computing device comprises at least one additional interface configured to provide at least one disruption signal to the vehicle control unit on a basis of an identified disruption of the radar sensor,

wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to increase a weighting of other sensors in the automated vehicle in a sensor fusion on the basis of the disruption signal.

11 . A computer-implemented method for identifying a disruption of a radar sensor through blocking or interference, the method comprising:

determining at least one characteristic figure for a range of values in a noise distribution in radar data that have been received from the radar sensor, in which at most few and/or at most weakly reflecting objects are present;

evaluating the characteristic figure for the range of values in order to identify a disruption of the radar sensor;

determining a type of disruption in a disrupted radar sensor on a basis of at least one leakage signal, wherein the leakage signal occurs due to a coupling of an output radar signal of a transmitter module of the radar sensor into a receiver module of the radar sensor; and

comparing an average increase in the noise level in a predefine frequency range with at least one upper threshold level and at least one lower threshold level in order to determine the type of disruption.

12 . The computing-implemented method according to claim 11 , wherein evaluating the characteristic figure comprises:

comparing the characteristic figure for the range of values in the noise distribution with an equivalent characteristic figure for an equivalent range of values in a reference noise distribution with respect to a disruption threshold value in order to identify the disruption of the radar sensor.

13 . The computing-implemented method according to claim 11 , further comprising:

updating the reference noise distribution with a noise distribution in a current radar cycle on a basis of an undisrupted radar sensor using moving averaging.

14 . The computing-implemented method according to claim 11 , further comprising:

classifying the disruption as blocking in response to the upper threshold value being exceeded by the average increase in the noise level in the predetermined frequency range; and

classifying the disruption as interference in response to the average increase in the noise level falling below a lower threshold value in the predetermined frequency range.

15 . The computing-implemented method according to claim 11 , further comprising:

determining a distance from the radar sensor to a blocking object in the case of a blocking of the radar sensor on a basis of a characteristic modulation in the noise distribution.

16 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer program that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform the method according to claim 11 .