Recently, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport issued the Guidelines for Digital and Intelligent Technologies in Smart Ports (First Edition). The Guidelines explicitly call for the integrated use of millimeter-wave radar, LiDAR, video imaging technologies, and industrial sensors to monitor the safety status of equipment, vessels, cargo, and the environment in real time, enabling comprehensive, all-weather situational awareness of vessels, people, machinery, vehicles, cargo, yards, the environment, and facilities across port areas.

Smart Port Digitalization: Sensing Infrastructure Comes First
The Guidelines place "sensing infrastructure" first in the "digital infrastructure" section.
This sends a clear signal: to achieve automation, unmanned operation, and intelligent management, smart ports must first gain more comprehensive, real-time, and reliable awareness of equipment, vehicles, personnel, and the operating environment.

Under "ubiquitous sensing technologies," the Guidelines further specify the integrated use of millimeter-wave radar, LiDAR, video imaging, and industrial sensors to monitor the status of port equipment, vessels, cargo, and environmental safety in real time.

Why Is Millimeter-Wave Radar Essential for Port Sensing?
Port operating environments are complex. At dry bulk terminals in particular, the Guidelines call for solutions to the challenges of unmanned operation under high dust levels, severe vibration, heavy loads, and complex yard conditions.
Compared with vision and LiDAR, millimeter-wave radar uses active detection and does not depend on ambient light. It continuously measures target distance, velocity, and angle, maintaining stable detection in rain, fog, dust, darkness, and other demanding conditions. This makes it essential for port sensing.

Millimeter-Wave Radar Solutions for Smart Ports
For port vehicles and large operating equipment, millimeter-wave radar can be flexibly mounted on vehicles or booms to detect nearby obstacles in real time, providing reliable sensing for obstacle avoidance, collision prevention, and safe operation.
01 Vehicle-Mounted - Obstacle Avoidance for Port Vehicles

Radar can be installed at the front, sides, or rear of terminal tractors, AGVs, IGVs, loaders, and other port vehicles. It measures obstacle distance, velocity, and bearing to support forward-collision prevention, blind-spot monitoring, reversing assistance, and environmental sensing for autonomous driving.
02 Boom-Mounted - Collision Avoidance for Large Equipment

Large port equipment - including gantry cranes, cranes, ship loaders, ship unloaders, and stacker-reclaimers - typically has moving structures such as booms, lifting arms, and cantilevers. Radar can be installed at critical boom positions to detect obstacles and changes in distance along the direction of movement, supplying data for proximity warnings, deceleration, and stop control to reduce collision risk.

From Reliable Sensing to Safe Operations: Three Benefits of Millimeter-Wave Radar
01 Safer
Continuously measures changes in obstacle distance, velocity, and bearing, providing a sensing basis for proximity warnings, obstacle avoidance, and collision prevention.
02 More Stable
Independent of ambient light, it maintains stable detection at night and in rain, fog, dust, and other demanding conditions, supporting continuous port operations.
03 Easy to Integrate
Compact and flexible to deploy, it can be installed at critical vehicle- and boom-mounted positions and adapted to many types of port vehicles and large equipment.

Nanoradar Automotive Radar Product Family

Nanoradar's six automotive radar models cover detection ranges from 20 to 170 meters. They operate reliably in rain, snow, fog, and other harsh conditions, providing round-the-clock, all-weather detection. With up to 1,200 point-cloud points per frame, a minimum size of 40 x 40 mm, and serial/CAN/RS485 interfaces, the products are easy for customers to integrate.