Enhanced passive coherent location techniques to track and identify UAVs, UCAVs, MAVs, and other objects

• US 7,782,256 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ERA as (Omnipol as)
• Original Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Alexander E.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US11/749,045
• Publication Number:
  US 20080088508A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,197 Days
• Field of Search: 342/453, 342/454, 342463-465, 701/117, 701/119, 701/120
• US Class Current: 342/453
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/003 Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/584 adapted for simultaneous range and velocity measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/66 Radar-tracking systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/726 Multiple target tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• 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 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/29 Combinations of different interacting antenna units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q25/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching

Abstract

A system and technique is described which has the capability to track and identify, in real time, various aircraft and objects including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs), and Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). The system uses a combination of techniques including conventional automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B), transponder multilateration, broadband emitter multilateration, primary and secondary radar, and passive coherent location. A series of enhancement to conventional passive coherent location are described.

Claims

1. A system for tracking an object, comprising:

a receiver receiving a reference transmission on a direct path from a controlled or uncontrolled transmitter, and a scattered transmission originating from a controlled or uncontrolled transmitter, scattered by the object, and then received by the receiver;

a comparator comparing the received transmissions to determine a frequency-difference-of-arrival thereby establishing a track or tracks for the object or objects, the comparator comprising a subsystem for narrowband pre-detection signal processing receiving input signals include the target transmission and the reference transmission, and correlating the target transmission and the reference transmission using a database of a priori illuminator signals to discriminate between reference transmissions and target transmissions; and

a tracker updating each track on a predetermined periodic basis, and forwarding each track to the system'"'"'s processing unit for filtering and display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmissions include one or more of FM radio, Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T), Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system combines one or more of portable and fixed multilateration, ADS-B, Passive Emitter Tracking (PET), and Passive Coherent Location (PCL) receiver systems sharing the same antenna mast, power, communications, and infrastructure for ease of deployment.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the system combines a mobile or fixed based system combines Passive Emitter Tracking (PET) and Passive Coherent Location (PCL) to provide real-time tracking and characterization or identification of cooperative and non cooperative targets including land, sea, and airborne targets.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the PET includes direction finding using phase of received target emissions and Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) processing of the received target emissions.

6. The system of claim 4, where the PCL includes TDOA processing of signals reflected by cooperative and non-cooperative targets.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the characterization or identification includes electronic intelligence of target emissions and target classification based on modulation of the reflected signals.

8. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

a signal conditioner performing transmitter-specific conditioning of the received scattered transmission including analogue band-pass filtering of the signal, equalization to improve the quality of the reference transmission, and removal of unwanted structures in the signals.