Relative Location Determination of Mobile Sensor Nodes

• US 20110025494A1
• Filed: 08/03/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Cook, Carl D., Adcook, Scott E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,416,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/888 through wall detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/10 using transmission of interrupted, pulse-modulated waves determination of distance by phase measurement G01S15/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/74 Systems using reradiation of acoustic waves, e.g. IFF, i.e. identification of friend or foe
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/87 Combinations of sonar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning

Abstract

Automated sensor localization systems and methods are described. An exemplary application for the sensor localization system is in a “Sense Through the Wall” (STTW) radar system, involving a plurality of distributed sensors or sensor nodes.

Claims

1. A system for relative location determination of a plurality of mobile sensor nodes in a distributed sensor network, comprising:

a wireless data link connecting each of said plurality of mobile sensor nodes;

an ultrasonic transponder positioned at each mobile sensor node, said transponder including an ultrasonic transmitter adapted to transmit ultrasonic pulses and a first receiver adapted to receive ultrasonic signals; and

a controller for each sensor node, and wherein the controller for a given sensor node is adapted to determine to measure line-of-sight distances from the given sensor node to each other sensor node using the ultrasonic pulses generated by the ultrasonic transponder for each mobile sensor node, to determine locations of the mobile sensor nodes relative to each other, and to communicate said line-of-sight distances over said wireless data link to the mobile sensor nodes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said ultrasonic transponders are configured to operate at a frequency in a range from 20 KHz to 80 KHz.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said ultrasonic transponders are configured to operate at about 60 KHz.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a temperature sensor at each mobile sensor node for generating a temperature signal indicative of an ambient temperature at the mobile node, and said controller is configured to determine a speed of sound propagation of ultrasonic pulses generated by the ultrasonic transponder in dependence on said ambient temperature signal.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each mobile sensor node further comprises a radar sensor.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the radar sensor includes a radar data processor configured to track multiple simultaneous tri-lateration target solutions for each possible relative angular position assumption for the mobile sensors in the network, and to select the angular position assumption which yields a converged target track.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the radar sensor is a sense through the wall radar sensor, and the radar sensor includes a radar data processor configured to detect and track a range to through wall targets and communicates target range data to each of the other sensor nodes over said wireless data link.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each sensor node receives said target range data from other nodes and is configured to compute multiple simultaneous tri-lateration solutions for a plurality of possible relative angular position assumptions for the mobile sensor nodes in the network, and to select an angular position assumption corresponding to a tri-lateration solution with converged target tracks.

9. A system for relative location determination of a plurality of mobile sensor nodes in a distributed sensor network, comprising:

a wireless data link connecting each of said plurality of mobile sensor nodes;

a two channel ultrasonic transponder positioned at each mobile sensor node, said transponder including a first channel comprising a first transmitter and a first receiver oriented to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals toward a first direction relative to the sensor node over an azimuth field of view, and a second channel comprising a second transmitter and a second receiver oriented to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals toward a second direction relative to the sensor node over an azimuth field of view; and

a controller adapted to determine to measure line-of-sight distances between each of the mobile sensor nodes using ultrasonic pulses generated by the two-channel transponders for each mobile sensor node, to determine locations of the mobile nodes relative to each other, and to communicate said line-of-sight distances over said wireless data link to the mobile sensor nodes.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said two-channel transponders are configured to operate at a frequency in a range from 20 KHz to 80 KHz.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said two-channel transponders are configured to operate at about 60 KHz.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein each mobile sensor node has a front side, a back side, a left side and a right side, and wherein said first direction is toward said left side, and said second direction is toward said right side.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein said azimuth field of view is at least a 60 degree field of view.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a temperature sensor at each mobile sensor node for generating a temperature signal indicative of an ambient temperature at the mobile node, and said processor is configured to determine a speed of sound propagation of ultrasonic pulses generated by the ultrasonic transponder in dependence on said ambient temperature signal.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein each mobile sensor node further comprises a radar sensor.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the radar sensor includes a radar data processor configured to track multiple simultaneous tri-lateration solutions for each possible relative angular position assumption for the mobile sensors in the network, and to select the angular position assumption which yields a converged target track.

17. A method for determining relative locations of three mobile sensor nodes whose relative positions define a triangle with side lengths a, b, and c in a distributed sensor network, comprising:

a) activating respective ultrasonic transponder systems at each of the mobile sensor nodes to transmit sequences of ultrasonic pulses from one mobile sensor node and receive the ultrasonic pulses at others of the mobile sensor nodes to determine respective line-of-sight distance measurements of side lengths a, b and c;

b) communicating said distance measurements from each mobile sensor node to all other sensor nodes over a wireless data link;

b) using said distance measurements between each of the three sensor nodes, calculating the relative locations of each mobile sensor node.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said calculating the relative locations of each mobile sensor node includes solving for the triangle with side lengths a, b, and c, selecting vertices (0,0), (a,0), and (x,y) of the triangle and solving

19. The method of claim 17, wherein each ultrasonic transponder comprises a two channel ultrasonic transponder including a first channel comprising a first transmitter and a first receiver oriented to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals toward a left side direction relative to the mobile node over an azimuth field of view, and a second channel comprising a second transmitter and a second receiver oriented to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals toward a right side direction relative to the sensor node over an azimuth field of view.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein each mobile sensor node further comprises a radar sensor including a radar data processor, the method further comprising:

tracking multiple simultaneous tri-lateration solutions for each possible relative angular position assumption for the mobile sensors in the network;

selecting the angular position assumption which yields a converged target track to resolve ambiguities in the relative location of the mobile sensor nodes.