Soldier/ground vehicle passive ranging system utilizing compact spatiotemporal processor

• US 20090195454A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John T. Apostolos, Ronald M. Yannone
• Original Assignee: John T. Apostolos, Ronald M. Yannone
• Inventors: Yannone, Ronald M., Apostolos, John T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,642,963 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/375
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/74 Multi-channel systems specially adapted for direction-finding, i.e. having a single antenna system capable of giving simultaneous indications of the directions of different signals systems in which the directions of different signals are determined sequentially and displayed simultaneously G01S3/04, G01S3/14
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders

Abstract

A method of two-source passive ranging comprising the steps of determining the coordinates of a first position and a second position wherein a first soldier or ground vehicle is located at the first position and a second soldier or ground vehicle is located at the second position; determining individual angles between said first and second positions and a radio frequency source; and using individual single-angle accuracy values to estimate the range from the first and second positions to the radio frequency source.

Claims

1. A method for locating an RF transmitting target, comprising the steps of:

providing a first signal acquisition detector and analysis device at a first position and having an output that indicates the direction of arrival and elevation of a signal from an RF transmitting target associated with a list of threat signals from targets, the device having a two-dimensional multi-element phased array having an output coupled to a basic analog processing element including two sets of two-dimensional beam forming dispersion delay lines, one set of delay lines stacked vertically relative to the phased array, a second set of two-dimensional beam forming dispersive delay lines coupled to the first set and stacked horizontally relative to the phased array, the analog process element being activated to periodically read out the spectrum of a band of interest in terms of the outputs of the horizontal dispersive delay lines, the outputs of the horizontal dispersive delay lines determining spatial and temporal frequencies from which the angle of arrival of all the signals in the band of interest and time of occurrence thereof can be derived; and

,

processing the outputs of the horizontally stacked dispersive delay lines using the analog processing element to output angles of arrival of threat signals in the list, whereby the direction to an RF transmitting target is ascertained for a threat signal in the list.

2. The method of claim 1, and further including a second signal acquisition detection and analysis device that has outputs similar to those of the first device, the second device being at a second position spaced from the first position for permitting triangulation to determine the geophysical location of the target.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a ground vehicle having the device is located at the first position.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a soldier having the device is located at the first position.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein a soldier having the device is located at the second position.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein a ground vehicle having the device is located at the second position.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is a handheld device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the handheld device is carried by a soldier for convenient battlefield target location.