Method and apparatus for improved determination of range and angle of arrival utilizing a two tone CW radar

• US 7,205,932 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2004
• Issued: 04/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Incorporated (BAE Systems Plc)
• Original Assignee: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Incorporated (BAE Systems Plc)
• Inventors: Fiore, Paul D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory; Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US10/956,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20070052580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 342 61- 67, 342 82-103, 342/118, 342127-132, 342145-147, 342149-158, 342/175, 342189-197, 342104-116, 342 51- 56, 342/133, 89/11.1
• US Class Current: 342/133
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/32 using transmission of continuous waves, whether amplitude-, frequency-, or phase-modulated, or unmodulated
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/449 Combined with MTI or Doppler processing circuits

Abstract

An improved system is provided for aiming a shotgun-based or other countermeasure system so as to be able to countermeasure incoming rockets or projectiles. In one embodiment a shotgun aimed and controlled by the subject system projects a pattern of pellets to intercept a rocket-propelled grenade or incoming projectile. The fire control system uses a CW two-tone monopulse radar to derive range and angle of arrival within 150 milliseconds, with range and angle of arrival measurements having approximately twice the accuracy of prior CW two-tone monopulse radars. The improvement derives from using all of the information in the returned radar beams and is the result of the recognition that one can use the Sum and Difference signals to assemble a two-by-two Rank One matrix that permits using singular value decomposition techniques to generate range and angle of arrival matrices in which all available information is used and in which noise is eliminated.

Claims

1. A method for improving the range and angle of arrival accuracy of a two-tone CW radar from which sum and difference signals for the two frequencies associated with the two tones are available, comprising the steps of:

forming a first two-by-two matrix from the sum and difference signals for each of the two frequencies associated with the two tones;

factorizing the first two-by-two matrix into a second and third matrix associated respectively with range and angle of arrival; and

,

determining range and angle of arrival from the respective two-by-two matrices, whereby all of the information in the sum and difference signals for the two frequencies is used in the determination of range and angle of arrival.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first two-by-two matrix is a Rank One matrix in the absence of noise.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the factorizing step includes the step of performing a singular value decomposition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the range determining step includes the step of determining the phase between the complex numbers in the first column of the second matrix.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the angle of arrival-determining step includes the step of deriving the amplitude ratio between the complex numbers in the first column of the third matrix.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the angle of arrival-determining step includes coupling the amplitude ratio to a lookup table for ascertaining the angle of arrival.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step produces estimates of range and angle of arrival, with the use of all of the information in the sum and difference signals for the two frequencies improving the accuracy of the estimates.

8. A system for determining range and angle of arrival of a target moving relative to a two-tone CW radar from which sum and difference signals for the two frequencies associated with the two tones are available, comprising:

a down converter for down-converting, low pass filtering and sampling said sum and difference signals;

a demultiplexer for providing time domain data streams corresponding to the down-converted, low pass filtered and sampled sum and difference signals;

a module coupled to said demultiplexer for performing a Fast Fourier Transform on said time-domain data stream to produce associated frequency domain data streams in the form of individual frequency bins;

a calculator for squaring the magnitude of the individual bins to produce magnitude-squared values;

an accumulator for accumulating said magnitude-squared values;

a peak search detector for determining from the accumulated magnitude-squared values which of said frequency bins has the highest peak, thus to determine which of said frequency bins contains said target;

a processor for generating a first two-by-two matrix from the sum and difference values associated with the bin that is determined to contain said target; and

,

a unit for performing a singular value decomposition of said first two-by-two matrix so as to factor said first matrix into a second and third matrix respectively related to range and angle of arrival.

9. The system of claim 8, and further including a phase detector for detecting the phase between the complex numbers in the first column of said second matrix, thus to derive range.

10. The system of claim 8, and further including an angle-of-arrival detector for calculating the amplitude ratio of the complex numbers in the first column of said third matrix, whereby said amplitude ratio corresponds to angle of arrival.

11. Apparatus for determining range and angle of arrival of a target moving relative to a two-tone CW radar from which sum and difference signals for the two frequencies associated with the two tones are available, comprising:

means for forming frequency bins for said sum and difference signals;

a peak detector for determining which of said frequency bins contains said target;

a matrix generator for generating a first two-by-two matrix from the sum and difference signals in the frequency bin containing said target; and

,

a factoring unit for factoring said first matrix into second and third two-by-two matrices having respective first columns containing information related respectively to the range and angle of arrival of said target, thus to determine the range and angle of arrival of said target.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the bin having the peak value contains information relating to the Doppler frequency shift of said two frequencies by the relative velocity between said radar and said target, and further including a velocity detector coupled to the frequency bin containing said target for determining the velocity of said target.

13. In a system for countermeasuring a rocket-propelled grenade using a multiple-barrel gun that projects a pattern of shot towards an incoming rocket-propelled grenade, a method for improving the aiming and firing accuracy of the gun, comprising the steps of:

using a two-tone monopulse CW radar that develops sum and difference signals for deriving the range, angle of arrival and velocity of the rocket-propelled grenade relative to the radar; and

,

aiming and firing the gun based on the angle of arrival, range and velocity measurements from the radar.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of deriving the range, angle of arrival and velocity of the incoming rocket-propelled grenade includes the steps of:

forming a first two-by-two matrix from the sum and difference signals for each of the two frequencies associated with the two tones;

factorizing the first two-by-two matrix into a second and third matrix associated respectively with range and angle of arrival; and

,

determining range and angle of arrival from the respective two-by-two matrices, whereby all of the information in the sum and difference signals for the two frequencies is used in the determination of range and angle of arrival.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first two-by-two matrix is a Rank One matrix in the absence of noise.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the factorizing step includes the step of performing a singular value decomposition.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the range determining step includes the step of determining the phase between the complex numbers in the first column of the second matrix.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the angle of arrival-determining step includes the step of deriving the amplitude ratio between the complex numbers in the first column of the third matrix.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the amplitude ratio is the complex monopulse ratio and wherein the angle of arrival-determining step includes coupling the complex monopulse ratio to a lookup table for ascertaining the angle of arrival.