Phase rate of change techniques for passive geo-location of radio frequency emitters

• US 8,830,122 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2011
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Exelis Incorporated (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Menegozzi, Lionel Nicholas, Holden, Suzanne Elaine, Van Alstine, Edward F., Palazzo, Robert G., Apa, Martin James
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Dao
• Application Number:
  US13/157,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20120313816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 342/126, 342/156, 342/357.25, 342/357.37, 342/442, 342/445, 342/451
• US Class Current: 342/357.37
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/04 using angle measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/48 the waves arriving at the antennas being continuous or intermittent and the phase difference of signals derived therefrom being measured
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for resolving phase ambiguities in phase rate of change (PROC) measurements of a long baseline interferometer (LBI). The system includes an LBI having a first antenna and a second antenna positioned on a vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter, and a processor positioned on the vehicle. The processor is configured to determine a first phase rate of change (PROC) of the RF signal received by the LBI over a short time interval to produce a short time interval range estimate of the RF emitter, determine a second PROC of the RF signal received by the LBI over a long time interval which is greater than the short time interval, to produce a plurality of ambiguous long time interval range estimates of the RF emitter, and c) select one of the plurality of long time interval range estimates based on the short time interval range estimate.

Claims

1. A system for determining a location of a radio frequency (RF) emitter transmitting an RF signal, the system comprising:

a long baseline interferometer (LBI) including a first antenna and a second antenna positioned on a vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter;

a short baseline interferometer (SBI) including a third antenna and a fourth antenna positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter; and

a processor positioned on the vehicle configured to;

a) determine a first phase rate of change (PROC) of the RF signal received by the LBI over a short time interval to produce a short time interval range estimate of the RF emitter,

b) determine a second PROC of the RF signal received by the LBI over a long time interval which is greater than the short time interval, to produce a plurality of long time interval range estimates of the RF emitter,

c) determine an angle of arrival (AOA) of the RF signal received by the SBI,

d) select one of the plurality of long time interval range estimates based on the short time interval range estimate, and

e) determine the location of the RF emitter based on the selected long time interval range estimate and the determined AOA in step c.

2. The system of claim 1,

wherein the processor is configured to:

f) repeat steps a-e a plurality of times to determine a plurality of locations of the RF emitter, and

g) determine a final location based on the plurality of locations.

3. The system of claim 1, including

another LBI including a fourth antenna and a fifth antenna positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter;

another SBI including a sixth antenna and a seventh antenna positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter,

wherein concurrent with performing steps a-e with the LBI and SBI, the processor is configured to perform steps a-e with the other LBI and the other SBI, and the processor determines a final location of the RF emitter based on the location determined by the LBI and the SBI, and the location determined by the other LBI and the other SBI.

4. The system of claim 1, including

another LBI including a fourth antenna and a fifth antenna positioned on another vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter;

another processor positioned on the other vehicle configured to perform steps a, b and d with the other LBI on the other vehicle to produce another short time interval range estimate of the RF emitter, another plurality of long time interval range estimates of the RF emitter, and another selected one of the other plurality of long time interval range estimates

a transmitter positioned on the other vehicle for transmitting the other selected one of the other plurality of long time interval range estimates to the vehicle,

wherein the vehicle utilizes the other selected one of the other plurality of long time interval range estimates to perform step e.

5. The system of claim 2, including

an adaptive filter for adaptively filtering the plurality of locations to determine the final location.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location is a relative location from the vehicle to the RF emitter determined by a relative distance and a relative angle from the vehicle to the RF emitter.

7. The system of claim 1, including

a GPS receiver for receiving GPS signals, and

wherein the processor is configured to:

f) determine a geo-location of the vehicle based on the GPS signals at each of steps a, b and c, and

g) determine the geo-location of the RF emitter based on the AOA computed in step c, the selected long time interval range estimate selected in step d and the geo-location of the vehicle computed in steps a, b and c.

8. A system for determining a location of a radio frequency (RF) emitter transmitting an RF signal, the system comprising:

a long baseline interferometer (LBI) including a first antenna and a second antenna positioned on a vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter;

a navigation system positioned on the vehicle; and

a processor positioned on the vehicle configured to;

a) determine a first phase rate of change (PROC) of the RF signal received by the LBI over a short time interval to produce a short time interval range estimate of the RF emitter,

b) determine a second PROC of the RF signal received by the LBI over a long time interval which is greater than the short time interval, to produce a plurality of long time interval range estimates of the RF emitter,

c) record a first position of the vehicle during step a, and a second position of the vehicle during step b using the navigation system,

d) select one of the plurality of long time interval range estimates based on the short time interval range estimate,

e) repeat steps a-d a predetermined number of times to produce a plurality of selected long time interval range estimates, and a plurality of recorded positions of the vehicle, and

f) determine the geo-location of the RF emitter based on the plurality of selected long time interval range estimates and a plurality of recorded positions of the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, including

a short baseline interferometer (SBI) including a third antenna and a fourth antenna positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter,

wherein the processor is configured to determine an angle of arrival (AOA) of the RF signal received by the SBI, and perform step f based on the AOA.

10. The system of claim 8, including

another LBI including a third antenna and a fourth antenna which are positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter, and

wherein the processor is configured to simultaneously perform steps a-f with the LBI and the other LBI.

11. The system of claim 8, including

another LBI including a third antenna and a fourth antenna which are positioned on another vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter,

another processor positioned on the other vehicle configured to perform steps a-e to produce another plurality of selected long time interval range estimates, and another plurality of recorded positions of the other vehicle, and

a transmitter positioned on the other vehicle for transmitting the other plurality of selected long time interval range estimates, and the other plurality of recorded positions to the vehicle,

wherein the vehicle utilizes the other plurality of selected long time interval range estimates to perform step f.

12. The system of claim 8, including

an adaptive filter,

wherein the processor is configured to:

g) repeat steps a-f to determine a plurality geo-locations of the RF emitter, and

h) determine a maximum likelihood geo-location of the RF emitter by adaptively filtering the plurality of geo-locations.

13. The system of claim 8, including

a GPS receiver for receiving GPS signals,

wherein the processor is configured to:

g) determine the geo-location of the vehicle based on the received GPS signals, and

h) determine the geo-location of the RF emitter based on the geo-location of the vehicle and the selected long time interval range estimates.

14. The system of claim 8, including

an attitude sensor that senses the roll, pitch and yaw of the vehicle,

wherein the processor is configured to:

g) measure a first attitude when measuring the first PROC,

h) measure a second attitude when measuring the second PROC, and

i) remove phase artifacts from the second PROC which are present due to differences between the first attitude and the second attitude.

15. A system for resolving phase ambiguities in phase rate of change (PROC) measurements of a long baseline interferometer (LBI), the system comprising:

an LBI including a first antenna and a second antenna positioned on a vehicle to receive an RF signal transmitted by an RF emitter; and

a processor positioned on the vehicle configured to;

a) determine a first phase rate of change (PROC) of the RF signal received by the LBI over a short time interval to produce a short time interval range estimate of the RF emitter,

b) determine a second PROC of the RF signal received by the LBI over a long time interval which is greater than the short time interval, to produce a plurality of ambiguous long time interval range estimates of the RF emitter,

c) select one of the plurality of long time interval range estimates based on the short time interval range estimate.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to select one of the plurality of long time interval range estimates that is closest to the short time interval range estimate.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the short time interval and long time interval are set to determine resolve ambiguities in the PROC measurements and determine a distance from the vehicle to the RF emitter within a predetermined error range.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to determine the PROC measurements by:

d) measuring a first phase of the received RF signal with the LBI at a first time,

e) measuring a first attitude of the vehicle with the navigation system at the first time,

f) measuring a second phase of the received RF signal with the LBI at a second time,

g) measuring a second attitude of the vehicle with the navigation system at the second time, and

h) determining a change in phase of the RF signal from the first time to the second time by removing artifact phase changes produced by a change in attitude from the first time to the second time.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to:

d) repeat steps a-c to produce a plurality of selected long time interval range estimates, and

e) determine a location of the RF emitter based on a common intersection between the plurality of selected long time interval range estimates.

20. The system of claim 15, including

a short baseline interferometer (SBI) including a third antenna and a fourth antenna positioned on the vehicle to receive the RF signal transmitted by the RF emitter,

wherein the processor is configured to:

d) determine an angle of arrival (AOA) of the RF signal received by the SBI, and

e) determine a location of the RF emitter based on a common intersection between the selected long time interval range estimate and the AOA.