System and method for target location

• US 7,782,247 B1
• Filed: 07/25/2008
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Johnson, Alexander K., Rivera, Rachel A., VanLaningham, Steven, Stevens, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brainard; Timothy A
• Application Number:
  US12/220,618
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 342/90
• US Class Current: 342/118
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/003 Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/878 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations

Abstract

A method for method of estimating the position of one or more target nodes based on received reflections of a primary signal. The method includes receiving a primary signal from a transmitter node having a known location at a receiver node having a known location and receiving at least one reflected signal at the receiver node, the reflected signal generated by a reflection of the primary signal by a target node having an unknown location. The method further includes applying a target position algorithm to the primary signal and the at least one reflected signal to generate target location information.

Claims

1. A method of estimating the position of one or more target nodes based on received reflections of a primary signal, comprising:

receiving a primary signal from a transmitter node having a known location at a receiver node having a known location;

receiving at least one reflected signal at the receiver node, the reflected signal generated by a reflection of the primary signal by a target node having an unknown location;

applying a target position algorithm to the primary signal and the at least one reflected signal to generate echo delay information;

receiving echo delay information from at least one other transmitter and/or receiver node;

determining a centroid value for the generated echo delay information and the received echo delay information; and

applying an estimation filter to the centroid value to generate target location information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the target position algorithm is at least one of a Spectmur algorithm and an Autocorrelation algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1, further including transmitting the echo delay information to at least on other transmitter and/or receiver node to increase the accuracy of the target position algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, further including processing the echo delay information to eliminate known targets.

5. The method of claim 1, further including applying a constant false alarm rate to the echo delay information to eliminate sea/ground clutter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the target location information does not require a priori information about the signal.