ELECTRONIC APPARATUS, ANGLE ESTIMATION SYSTEM, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20200132798A1
• Filed: 08/30/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: TOMIOKA, Tazuko
• Granted Patent: US 11,585,885 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/043 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/10 Means for reducing or compensating for quadrantal, site, or like errors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/50 the waves arriving at the antennas being pulse modulated and the time difference of their arrival being measured
• 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: H01Q 23/00 Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them

Abstract

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry estimates a first AoA of an arrival wave corresponding to a received signal from a receiving element array. The processing circuitry determines whether the estimated first AoA is an outlier or not. The processing circuitry outputs the first AoA as a second AoA, when the first AoA is not to be an outlier. The processing circuitry acquires one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoA is a side-lobe angle of the receiving element array, when the first AoA is to be an outlier. The processing circuitry determines whether the main-lobe angle is an outlier or not. The processing circuitry outputs the main-lobe angle as the second AoA, when the main-lobe angle is not to be an outlier.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus, comprising processing circuitry configured to:

estimate a first angle of arrival (AoA) of an arrival wave corresponding to a received signal from a receiving element array, based on the received signal;

determine whether the estimated first AoA is an outlier or not, based on a first criterion;

output the first AoA as a second AoA, when the first AoA is not to be an outlier;

acquire one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoA is a side-lobe angle of the receiving element array, when the first AoA is to be an outlier;

determine whether the main-lobe angle is an outlier or not, based on a second criterion; and

output the main-lobe angle as the second AoA, when the main-lobe angle is not to be an outlier.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving element array is an antenna array.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry comprises a memory configured to store a side-lobe/main-lobe correspondence table that is a table indicating correspondence between the side-lobe angles and the main-lobe angles.

4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of the main-lobe angles corresponding to the first AoA are present, the processing circuitry selects the main-lobe angle having a minimum probability of being an outlier, and determines whether the selected main-lobe angle is an outlier or not, based on the second criterion.

5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry outputs the second AoA to a filter.

6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the filter outputs a predicted value of an AoA of the arrival wave, based on the input second AoA, and

the second criterion is set to an absolute value of a difference between the main-lobe angle, and the predicted value acquired by predicting the AoA at a time when the received signal is received.

7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the filter is an adaptive tracking filter.

8. An electronic apparatus, comprising processing circuitry configured to:

estimate a first AoA of an arrival wave corresponding to a received signal received by a receiving element array, based on the received signal;

acquire one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoA is a side-lobe angle of the receiving element array; and

output the first AoA and the main-lobe angles.

9. An AoA estimation system, comprising:

a transmitter configured to radiate a signal;

a receiving element array configured to receive the signal radiated from the transmitter; and

a processor configured to;

estimate a first AoA of arrival wave corresponding to a received signal from the receiving element array, based on the received signal;

determine whether the estimated first AoA is an outlier or not, based on a first criterion;

output the first AoA as a second AoA, when the first AoA is not to be an outlier;

acquire one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoA is a side-lobe angle of the receiving element array, when the first AoA is to be an outlier;

determine whether the main-lobe angle is an outlier or not, based on a second criterion; and

output the main-lobe angle as the second AoA, when the main-lobe angle is not to be an outlier.

10. An Angle-of-Departure (AoD) estimation system, comprising:

a transmitter configured to radiate a signal from a transmitting element array;

an electronic apparatus configured to receive the signal radiated from the transmitting element array by a receiving element, and estimate a first AoD of an arrival wave corresponding to the received signal from the receiving element, based on the received signal; and

a processor configured to;

determine whether the first AoD is an outlier or not, based on a first criterion;

output the first AoD as a second AoD, when the first AoD is not to be an outlier;

acquire one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoD is a side-lobe angle of the transmitting element array, when the first AoD is to be an outlier;

determine whether the main-lobe angle is an outlier or not, based on a second criterion; and

output the main-lobe angle as the second AoD, when the main-lobe angle is not to be an outlier.

11. A method, comprising:

estimating a first AoA of an arrival wave corresponding to a received signal from a receiving element array, based on the received signal;

determining whether the estimated first AoA is an outlier or not, based on a first criterion;

outputting the first AoA as a second AoA, when the first AoA is not to be an outlier;

acquiring one or more main-lobe angles assuming that the first AoA is a side-lobe angle of the receiving element array, when the first AoA is to be an outlier;

determining whether the acquired main-lobe angle is an outlier or not, based on a second criterion; and

outputting the main-lobe angle as the second AoA, when the main-lobe angle is not to be an outlier.