Monopulse radar apparatus

• US 6,337,656 B1
• Filed: 06/01/2000
• Issued: 01/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Natsume, Kazuma, Hazumi, Hiroshi, Kumon, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Pihulic, Daniel T.
• Application Number:
  US09/583,534
• Time in Patent Office: 586 Days
• Field of Search: 342/149, 342/70, 342/71, 342/72
• US Class Current: 342/149
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/44 Monopulse radar, i.e. simultaneous lobing
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/48 using multiple beams at emission or reception
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar

Abstract

A radar apparatus is provided which is capable of discriminating between azimuth angles of two or more targets moving side by side close to each other. The radar apparatus provides antenna beams which partially overlap with each other to define a plurality of monopulse areas and processes input signals produced in each of the monopulse areas to obtain angular direction data. The radar apparatus determines a time-sequential variation in angular direction data in each of the monopulse areas and determines the angular direction data whose variation is within a preselected allowable range as being effective in determining the angular direction of each target correctly.

Claims

1. A radar apparatus comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a radar wave;

a signal receiver providing antenna beams which overlap with each other to define a plurality of monopulse areas, said signal receiver receiving a return of the radar wave from a target object in each of the monopulse areas to produce a pair of input signals;

an angular direction data determining circuit processing the input signals produced in each of the monopulse areas to obtain angular direction data, in time sequence, each indicating an angular direction of the target object based on differences in one of amplitude and phase between components of the input signals; and

a variation determining circuit determining a variation in angular direction data obtained, in time sequence, in each of the monopulse areas and determines the angular direction data whose variation is within a preselected allowable range as values effective in determining an angular direction of the target object.

2. A radar apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said signal receiver is designed to provide the antenna beams thereof so that adjacent two of the monopulse areas partially overlap with each other.

3. A radar apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said signal receiver includes a three or more receiving antennas which are located so as to have the antenna beams oriented in different directions, respectively, and so that adjacent two of the antenna beams define one of the monopulse areas.

4. A radar apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said signal receiver includes a plurality of receiving antennas arrayed in line to have antenna beams thereof oriented in the same direction and a signal processing circuit summing outputs from said receiving antennas with given weighting to form the beams.

5. A radar apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein said signal processing circuit includes an analog-to-digital converter sampling the outputs from the receiving antennas to produce digital signals and an arithmetic circuit performing a complex Fourier Transform on the digital signals in space series along an array of the receiving antennas.

6. A radar apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein said arithmetic circuit adds null dummy signals to the digital signals produced by the analog-to-digital converter to increase the number of signals to undergo the complex Fourier Transform simultaneously more than the number of the outputs from the receiving antennas.

7. A radar apparatus comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a radar wave;

a signal receiver providing antenna beams which overlap with each other to define a plurality of monopulse areas, said signal receiver receiving a return of the radar wave from a target object in each of the monopulse areas to produce a pair of input signals;

an angular direction data determining circuit processing the input signals produced in each of the monopulse areas to obtain angular direction data each indicating an angular direction of the target object based on differences in one of amplitude and phase between components of the input signals; and

a grouping circuit, if some of the angular direction data are close to each other within a given range, forming a group including the angular direction data close to each other within the given range; and

a determining circuit determining the angular direction data in the group as values effective in determining an angular direction of the target object.

8. A radar apparatus comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a radar wave;

a signal receiver providing antenna beams which overlap with each other to define a plurality of monopulse areas, said signal receiver receiving a return of the radar wave from a target object in each of the monopulse areas to produce a pair of input signals;

an angular direction data determining circuit processing the input signals produced in each of the monopulse areas to obtain angular direction data each indicating an angular direction of the target object based on differences in one of amplitude and phase between components of the input signals; and

a grouping circuit forming groups each including some of the angular direction data which are close to each other within a given range; and

a determining circuit determining the angular direction data belonging to one of the groups whose time-sequential variation is within a preselected range as values effective in determining an angular direction of the target object.