Method and system for radar tracking of moving target from moving station

• US 7,522,094 B1
• Filed: 11/20/2007
• Issued: 04/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: National Taiwan University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: National Taiwan University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: Kiang, Jean-Fu, Tu, Po-Jen
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor; John B
• Application Number:
  US11/986,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20090091490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 518 Days
• Field of Search: 342/59, 342/62, 342/63, 342/90, 342 94- 97, 342106-108, 342113-115, 342/126, 342/133, 342139-142, 342/146, 342/147, 342159-162, 342179-180, 342/195, 342/451, 342/463, 701/207, 701/223
• US Class Current: 342/95
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/46 Indirect determination of position data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/723 by using numerical data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/466 by Trilateration, i.e. two antennas or two sensors determine separately the distance to a target, whereby with the knowledge of the baseline length, i.e. the distance between the antennas or sensors, the position data of the target is determined
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/295 Means for transforming co-ordinates or for evaluating data, e.g. using computers

Abstract

A method and system is proposed for use by a moving station (such as a jetfighter) for radar tracking of a moving target (such as an air-to-air missile). The proposed method and system involves the use of a hybrid FSK/LFM (Frequency Shift Keying & Linear Frequency Modulation) scheme for acquiring a collection of raw radar data, a first Gaussian-noise filter array of one-stage linear Kalman filters for S/N-enhancement of the raw radar data, a trilateration module, and a second Gaussian-noise filter array of one-stage linear Kalman filters for S/N-enhancement of the trilateration-resulted radar data. These features allow the radar tracking of moving objects to be more fast and accurate.

Claims

1. A moving target radar tracking method, comprising:

emitting a radar signal beam;

sensing an echo of the radar signal beam from a moving target and producing a raw set of radar data about the moving target, including range, velocity, and acceleration;

performing S/N (signal-to-noise ratio) enhancement of each raw set of radar data;

performing trilateration on the S/N-enhanced sets of radar data in reference to a predefined 3-dimensional coordinate system having a first axis, a second axis, and a third axis to obtain three axis-oriented sets of radar data respectively in reference to the first axis, the second axis, and the third axis of the 3-dimensional coordinate system;

performing S/N enhancement on the trilateration-resulted sets of radar data; and

presenting the S/N-enhanced trilateration-resulted sets of radar data in a human-cognizable data form.

2. The moving target radar tracking method of claim 1, wherein the sensing of the echo of radar signal is implemented with a hybrid FSK/LFM scheme.

3. The moving target radar tracking method of claim 1, wherein the S/N-enhancement of the raw sets of radar data is implemented with a Kalman filtering process.

4. The moving target radar tracking method of claim 3, wherein the Kalman filtering process is based on a one-stage linear scheme.

5. The moving target radar tracking method of claim 1, wherein the S/N-enhancement of the trilateration-resulted sets of radar data is implemented with a Kalman filtering process.

6. The moving target radar tracking method of claim 5, wherein the Kalman filtering process is based on a one-stage linear scheme.

7. A moving target radar tracking system, comprising:

a radar signal emitter, which is capable of emitting a radar signal beam;

a radar signal sensor array, which includes an array of radar signal sensors, each capable of sensing an echo of the radar signal beam from a moving target and producing a raw set of radar data about the moving target, including range, velocity, and acceleration;

a first Gaussian-noise filter array, which includes an array of Gaussian-noise filters respectively coupled to the radar signal sensors in the radar signal sensor array for S/N (signal-to-noise ratio) enhancement of each raw set of radar data produced by the radar signal sensor array;

a trilateration module for trilaterating the S/N-enhanced sets of radar data outputted from the first Gaussian-noise filter array in reference to a predefined 3-dimensional coordinate system having a first axis, a second axis, and a third axis to obtain three axis-oriented sets of radar data respectively in reference to the first axis, the second axis, and the third axis of the 3-dimensional coordinate system;

a second Gaussian-noise filter array, which includes an array of at least three Gaussian-noise filters respectively used for S/N-enhanced of the set of first-axis oriented radar data, the set of second-axis oriented radar data, and the set of third-axis oriented radar data produced by the trilateration module; and

a radar data presentation module, which is capable of presenting the S/N-enhanced trilateration-resulted sets of radar data produced by the second Gaussian-noise filter array in a human-cognizable data form.

8. The moving target radar tracking system of claim 7, wherein the radar signal sensor array is composed of an array of hybrid FSK/LFM sensors.

9. The moving target radar tracking system of claim 7, wherein the first Gaussian-noise filter array is composed of an array of Kalman filters.

10. The moving target radar tracking system of claim 9, wherein the Kalman filters are one-stage linear type.

11. The moving target radar tracking system of claim 7, wherein the second Gaussian-noise filter array is composed of an array of Kalman filters.

12. The moving target radar tracking system of claim 7, wherein the Kalman filters are one-stage linear type.