Antenna combination technique for multi-frequency reception

• US 7,683,830 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2006
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novariant Incorporated (Kubota Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novariant Incorporated (Kubota Corporation)
• Inventors: Montgomery, Paul Y., Lawrence, David G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US11/499,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20100045522A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 342463-465, 342/387, 342/464, 342/362, 342/385, 342/386, 34235701-35714, 342/457
• US Class Current: 342/357.29
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/54 using carrier phase measurements; using long or short baseline interferometry
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/3275 mounted on a horizontal surface of the vehicle, e.g. on roof, hood, trunk
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/521 reducing the coupling between adjacent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/30 Combinations of separate antenna units operating in different wavebands and connected to a common feeder system
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/26 varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture H01Q3/12, H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence

Abstract

A set of receiver antennas, of which at least one of the receiver antennas has the capability of receiving frequencies that another receiver antenna from the set is incapable of receiving, is used for determining position and orientation in a navigation system.

Claims

1. A navigation system for determining position of an array of receiver antennas, said navigation system comprising:

a plurality of GNSS receiver antennas, wherein at least

a first GNSS receiver antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas has mutually complementary frequency capability with respect to a second GNSS receiver antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas;

wherein, the first GNSS receiver antenna is separated from the second GNSS antenna by a physical spacing of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas; and

wherein, phases from the first and second GNSS receiver antennas are projected to a common physical point based on a relative position between the first and second GNSS receiver antennas.

2. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein at least two antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receive signals in one or more passbands, and when the at least two antennas are taken together, said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receive signals in at least three passbands.

3. The navigation system of claim 1, wherein at least two antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receives signals in one passband, and when taken together, said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receive signals in at least two passbands.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second GNSS receiver antennae are physically distinct antenna.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the mutually complementary frequency capability of the first GNSS receiver antenna with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna in the navigation system means that one of the first and second receiver antenna has the ability to receive signals in a frequency band that the other one of the first and second receiver antenna cannot receive.

6. The system as in claim 1,

wherein a first frequency received in a first frequency passband by the first receiver antenna that is not received by the second receiver antenna, and

a complementary other frequency in a second frequency passband received by the second receiver antenna that is not received by the first receiver antenna, are combined after being received to provide combined receiver antenna operation for the first frequency passband and the second frequency passband.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the first GNSS receiver antenna is able to receive a signal in at least one passband that is not able to be received by the second GNSS receiver antenna.

8. The navigation system of claim 2, wherein said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas are mounted on a rigid array of known dimensions.

9. The navigation system of claim 8, wherein a pair of GNSS receiver antennas on said rigid array share a common passband and receive signals from one or more transmit sources that are transmitting in said common passband, and wherein a known attitude of said rigid array and a measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas are used to project phases from all passbands to the common physical point.

10. The navigation system of claim 8, wherein the rigid array has a known attitude is used for projecting phase data from one or more of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas to the common physical point.

11. The navigation system of claim 10, wherein said common physical point is a phase center of a master antenna from said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas.

12. The navigation system of claim 9, wherein:

the known attitude of said rigid array and the measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas are used for resolving line biases on a baseline; and

the known attitude is determined by comparing a difference in carrier phases at a common frequency measured between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas, and using a known line of sight to a plurality of transmitted signal sources.

13. A method for determining position of an array of receiver antennas, the method comprising:

using a plurality of GNSS receiver antennas,

wherein at least a first GNSS receiver antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas has a complementary frequency capability with respect to a second GNSS receiver antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas;

wherein, the first GNSS receiver antenna is separated from the second GNSS antenna by a physical spacing of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas; and

wherein, phases from the first and second GNSS receiver antennas are projected to a common physical point based on a relative position between the first and second GNSS receiver antennas.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving signals in one or more passbands by at least two antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas, and when taken together, said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receive signals in at least three passbands.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving signals in one passband by at least two antenna of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas, and when taken together, said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas receive signals in at least two passbands.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the array is a rigid array of known dimensions.

17. The method as in claim 13, wherein the complementary frequency capability of the at least first GNSS receiver antenna with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna means that one of the first and second receiver antenna has the ability to receive signals in a frequency band that the other one of the first and second receiver antenna cannot receive.

18. The method as in claim 13, wherein the receiver antenna comprises either one element or two stacked elements that admit signals in either one or two defined radio frequency bands.

19. The method as in claim 13, wherein a receiver antenna comprises a set of independent antenna elements affixed in a known arrangement to a rigid substrate.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising sharing a common passband by a pair of GNSS receiver antennas on said rigid array and receiving signals from one or more transmit sources that are transmitting in said common passband, and using a known attitude of said rigid array and a measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas to project phases from all passbands to the common physical point.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising using said known attitude for projecting phase data from said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas to the common physical point.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein:

the known attitude of said rigid array and the measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas are used for resolving line biases on a baseline; and

the attitude is determined by comparing a difference in carrier phases at a common frequency measured between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas, and using a known line of sight to a plurality of transmitted signal sources.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein said common physical point is a phase center of a master antenna from said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas.

24. A method for combining a plurality of signal frequencies associated with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constellations by an array of receiver antennas, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of receiver antennas including a first antenna and a second antenna in an array, each of the receiver antennas adapted to receive at least one GNSS signal frequency and optionally a plurality of GNSS signal frequencies,

wherein at least some of the receiver antennas are adapted to receive mutually complementary frequencies with respect to other of the receiver antennas such that one of the first and second receiver antenna has the ability to receive signals only in a frequency band that the other one of the first and second receiver antenna cannot receive;

operating the plurality to receiver antennas to receive a plurality of GNSS signals in their respective frequency bands; and

combining the received signals from each of the plurality of receive antennas to generate data associated with all of the frequencies received by all of the receive antennas;

wherein, the first antenna is separated from the second antenna by a physical spacing of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of receiver antennas; and

wherein, phases from the first and second receiver antennas are projected to a common physical point based on a relative position between the first and second receiver antennas.

25. The method as in claim 24, wherein none of the receiver antennas are adapted to individually receive all of the frequencies that are generated by the combination.

26. A navigation system for determining position of an array of receiver antennas, the navigation system comprising:

a plurality of GNSS receiver antennas including a first GNSS receiver antenna and a second GNSS receiver antenna, the first GNSS receiver antennas having mutually complementary frequency capability with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna;

the first GNSS receiver antenna being separated from the second GNSS antenna by a physical spacing of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas; and

wherein phase data from the first and second GNSS receiver antennas are projected to a common physical point based on a relative position between the first and second GNSS receiver antennas.

27. The system as in claim 26, wherein the mutually complementary frequency capability of the first GNSS receiver antenna with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna in the navigation system is such that one of the first GNSS receiver antenna and the second GNSS receiver antenna has the ability to receive signals in a frequency band that the other one of the first and second GNSS receiver antenna cannot receive.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein:

a pair comprising two of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas on said array share a common passband and receive signals from one or more transmit sources that are transmitting in said common passband;

a known attitude of said array and a measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas are used for resolving line biases on a baseline;

said known attitude is determined by comparing a difference in carrier phases at a common frequency measured between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas, and by using a known line of sight to a plurality of transmitted signal sources; and

said known attitude is used for projecting the phase data from one or more of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas to the common physical point and said common physical point is a phase center of a designated master antenna from among said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas.

29. A method for determining position of an array of comprising a plurality of GNSS receiver antennas, the method comprising:

providing a first GNSS receiver antenna and a second GNSS receiver antenna of the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas;

configuring the first GNSS receiver antenna to have a complementary frequency capability with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna;

separating the first GNSS receiver antenna from the second GNSS antenna by a physical separation of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas; and

projecting phase data from the first GNSS receiver antennas and the second GNSS receiver antennas to a common physical point based on a relative position between the first and second GNSS receiver antennas.

30. The method as in claim 29, wherein the mutually complementary frequency capability of the first GNSS receiver antenna with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna is such that one of the first GNSS receiver antenna and the second GNSS receiver antenna has the ability to receive signals in a frequency band that the other one of the first and second GNSS receiver antenna cannot receive.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

configuring a pair comprising two of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas on said array to share a common passband and to receive signals from one or more transmit sources that are transmitting in said common passband;

determining a known attitude by comparing a difference in carrier phases at a common frequency measured between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas and by using a known line of sight to a plurality of transmitted signal sources;

using the known attitude of said array and a measured phase difference between said pair of GNSS receiver antennas for resolving line biases on a baseline; and

using the known attitude for projecting the phase data from one or more of said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas to the common physical point where said common physical point is a phase center of a designated master antenna selected from among said plurality of GNSS receiver antennas.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein:

the method creates a multiple frequency composite receiver antenna from the plurality of separate physically spaced receiver antenna elements and the resulting composite multiple frequency receiver antenna is used to produce phase measurements at all of the frequencies of the plurality of antennas, and wherein the phase measurements at every frequency appear to be generated at a common physical point.

33. A system comprising:

a plurality of GNSS receiver antennas including a first GNSS receiver antenna and a second GNSS receiver antenna;

the first GNSS receiver antennas having mutually complementary frequency capability with respect to the second GNSS receiver antenna;

the first GNSS receiver antenna is separated from the second GNSS antenna by a physical spacing of at least 0.1 cycles of a highest frequency wavelength operable with the plurality of GNSS receiver antennas;

a multiple-frequency composite receiver antenna is synthesized from the plurality of physically spaced receiver antennas and the resulting multiple-frequency composite receiver antenna is used to generate phase measurements at all of the operating frequencies of the plurality of receiver antennas; and

the phase measurements at all of the operating frequencies of the plurality of receiver antennas including of the first and second GNSS receiver antennas are projected to and appear to be generated from a common physical point.