Systems and techniques are described for robust radar-based gesture-recognition. A radar system (104) detects radar-based gestures on behalf of application subscribers. A state machine (2000) transitions between multiple states based on inertial sensor data. A no-gating state (2002) enables the radar system (104) to output radar-based gestures to application subscribers. The state machine (2000) also includes a soft-gating state (2004) that prevents the radar system (104) from outputting the radar-based gestures to the application subscribers. A hard-gating state (2006) prevents the radar system (104) from detecting radar-based gestures altogether. The techniques and systems enable the radar system (104) to determine when not to perform gesture-recognition, enabling user equipment (102) to automatically reconfigure the radar system (104) to meet user demand. By so doing, the techniques conserve power, improve accuracy, or reduce latency relative to many common techniques and systems for radar-based gesture-recognition.