System and method for person or object position location utilizing impulse radio

• US 20080100495A1
• Filed: 10/12/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Humatics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Time Domain Corporation (Humatics Corporation)
• Inventors: Richards, James, Fullerton, Larry, Finn, James, Tucker, William, Payment, Timothy, Meigs, David, Kelly, Donald, Welch, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,154,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/21
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/20 using a comparison of transit time of synchronised signals transmitted from non-directional antennas or antenna systems spaced apart, i.e. path-difference systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S13/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/76 wherein pulse-type signals are transmitted
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0226 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7163 using impulse radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7183 Synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/6908 using time hopping

Abstract

A System and Method for Person or Object Position Location Utilizing Impulse Radio, comprising a plurality of reference impulse radios; an object or person to be tracked having a mobile impulse radio associated therewith; an architecture with an associated positioning algorithm associated with said plurality of impulse radio reference radios and said mobile impulse radio; and display means for displaying the position of the person or object whose position is to be determined.

Claims

1. A system for determining the position of a person or object, said system comprising:

a mobile ultra wideband radio associated with said person or said object; and

a plurality of reference ultra wideband radios, said plurality of reference ultra wideband radios and at least one ultra wideband position determination technique being used to determine the position of said mobile ultra wideband radio, at least one of said plurality of reference ultra wideband radios or said mobile ultra wideband radio having a plurality of antennas, said plurality of antennas being used to resolve at least one position ambiguity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of antennas is one of a direction finding antenna, difference antenna, a directional antenna, a steerable null antenna, or an antenna array.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said direction finding antenna is used to determine an angular direction of said person or said object.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein two or more direction finding antennas are positioned such that their respective coverage areas each favor different position ambiguity areas.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein said at least one position ambiguity is resolved based on received signal strength at said at least one of said plurality of antennas.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said mobile ultra wideband radio or of said plurality of reference ultra wideband radios transmits or receives an UWB signal comprising low duty cycle pulses.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each of said low duty cycle pulses comprises one of a burst of cycles or approaches one cycle per pulse.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one ultra wideband position determination technique comprises one of a time-of-arrival technique, a round trip time-of-flight technique, a differential time-of-arrival method, a differenced time-of-arrival technique, an angle-of-arrival technique, an absolute signal amplitude range determination technique, a relative signal amplitude range determination technique, a directional antenna-based technique, or a beam steering technique.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the presence of at least one second object or second person is determined using at least one of a mono-static radar technique or a bi-static radar technique.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the position of said at least one second object or second person is determined using at least one of a mono-static radar technique or a bi-static radar technique.

11. A method for determining the position of a person or object, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a mobile ultra wideband radio with said person or said object; and

determining the position of said mobile ultra wideband radio using a plurality of reference ultra wideband radios and at least one ultra wideband position determination technique, at least one of said plurality of reference ultra wideband radios or said mobile ultra wideband radio having a plurality of antennas, said plurality of antennas being used to resolve at least one position ambiguity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of said plurality of antennas is one of a direction finding antenna, difference antenna, a directional antenna, a steerable null antenna, or an antenna array.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining an angular direction of said person or said object using said direction finding antenna.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

positioning two or more of said direction finding antennas such that their respective coverage areas each favor different position ambiguity areas.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

resolving said at least one position ambiguity based on received signal strength at said at least one of said plurality of antennas.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of said mobile ultra wideband radio or of said plurality of reference ultra wideband radios transmits or receives an UWB signal comprising low duty cycle pulses.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each of said low duty cycle pulses comprises one of a burst of cycles or approaches one cycle per pulse.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein said at least one ultra wideband position determination technique comprises one of a time-of-arrival technique, a round trip time-of-flight technique, a differential time-of-arrival method, a differenced time-of-arrival technique, an angle-of-arrival technique, an absolute signal amplitude range determination technique, a relative signal amplitude range determination technique, a directional antenna-based technique, or a beam steering technique.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining the presence of at least one second object or second person using at least one of a mono-static radar technique or a bi-static radar technique.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining the position of said at least one second object or second person using at least one of a mono-static radar technique or a bi-static radar technique.