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Perception & ML

Kick detection

Radar kick detection: first data to series development in under 7 months

tailgate opensexisting digital-key radarkickkick zone

Drawn to explain; not Bosch data.

Hands-free tailgate opening, sensed by the digital-key radar already in the car. The seven months covered the whole build: solution strategy, data campaigns and labelling, model trials, the detection system and a live demonstrator, then robustness in a customer vehicle, a passed OEM design review and the hand-over into series development. Its architecture is filed as an internal invention disclosure at Bosch.

Organisation
Robert Bosch GmbH
Period
Oct 2025 to Sep 2026
  1. THESISMaster's thesis · Oct 2025 to Mar 2026

    Data, model, detection system and a live demonstrator.

  2. SERIESSeries development · Apr to Sep 2026

    A customer vehicle, robustness, the OEM design review, series hand-over, and the team's tools.

the whole build, from the first campaign to the hand-over
<7 months
of the model's false triggers suppressed
>90%1
RAM budget for the whole function, set by the microcontroller target
~100 KB
THESISSERIESFirst dataLivedemonstratorCustomervehicleDesign reviewpassedSeriesdevelopment

Kick detection on a radar built to find a key

A comfort function ships on hardware already in the car, or not at all. And an uncommanded opening is a safety incident, so false triggers come first.

Building the function

THESISBuilt the signal analysis and processing for the key-finding radar, delivered as the front end of the detection.

Planned and ran the data campaigns. Designed, trained and optimised the detection algorithm: a working function, live in real time, sized for a microcontroller from day one, and validated on people it had never seen.

Into the vehicle

SERIESPorted it to a customer vehicle, reproduced its performance there, and defended the technical side in the OEM design review, which passed.

Extended the evaluation to the vehicle and contributed the metric definitions. Directed the content of the data-quality guideline for the vehicle campaigns.

In series development, the teams porting, optimising and validating the function came to me as its technical reference.

Tools the teams kept

THESISSERIESAlong with the function, I delivered the tools behind it: automated labelling and data-collection tooling used from the first campaign, and at the end a no-code evaluation suite and shared processing code. They became standard for Bosch teams in three countries.

Deliverables of the kick-detection work, by phase: master's thesis, then series development
PhaseThesisSeries development
Data
  • Data campaigns
  • Automated labelling and data-collection tooling
  • Metric definitions
  • The data-quality guideline for the vehicle campaigns
Function
  • The signal front end
  • The detection model, live in real time, sized for a microcontroller
  • A live demonstrator
Nothing in this phase
VehicleNothing in this phase
  • Ported to a customer vehicle, its performance reproduced
  • Robustness in the vehicle
  • The OEM design review, passed
Hand-overNothing in this phase
  • Technical reference for the series teams
  • A no-code evaluation suite and shared processing code
  • Both tool sets, standard for Bosch teams in three countries
Deliverables, at public depthKindSummary, text onlySourceThis page

Note

  1. 1Relative, per event. Absolute counts are not published.

Fact sheet

Roles
Radar ML Engineer, UWB Kick-to-Open Detection (master's thesis), then Radar ML Engineer, UWB Sensing Function, Series Development (working student)
Ownership
Technical owner of the function
Thesis
M.Eng. thesis with TH Ingolstadt
Stack
Python, TensorFlow, signal processing, hardware-aware ML
Confidential
Method, data, test procedures and customer details are confidential and are not described here.

Same kind of work, in public

Next: the internship before it, UWB radar evaluation and tooling