Pseudolite positioning system

• US 9,423,502 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2011
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Kubrak, Damien
• Primary Examiner(s): McGue, Frank J
• Application Number:
  US13/695,045
• Publication Number:
  US 20130201057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,954 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.48
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/11 wherein the cooperating elements are pseudolites or satellite radio beacon positioning system signal repeaters

Abstract

A positioning system comprises a set of pseudolites distributed in a confined area, said pseudolites transmitting positioning signals characterized by their time desynchronization and their apparent Doppler frequency, said time desynchronization and/or said apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals transmitted by the pseudolites being configured so that there is no ambiguity concerning the location of the correlation peaks P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 in the matrix of ambiguities defined by the delay and the apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals acquired by the receiver.

Claims

1. A system for positioning an object in an area of interest having a confined area, said system comprising:

a set of pseudolites distributed in the confined area, each pseudolite in said set of pseudolites having a spreading code corresponding to a spreading code of a satellite belonging to a constellation of satellites of a satellite navigation system, and each pseudolite being configured to transmit positioning signals characterized by a time desynchronization and an apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals, and said object comprising a receiver capable of acquiring the positioning signals, said system further comprising;

a server configured to determine said time desynchronization and/or said apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals transmitted by each pseudolite in the set of pseudolites so that there is no ambiguity concerning a location of correlation peaks in a matrix of ambiguities defined by the time desynchronization and the apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals acquired by the receiver, said no ambiguity in the location of correlation peaks being provided by the server by an offset in apparent Doppler frequency and/or the time desynchronization of the positioning signals.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the time desynchronization and the apparent Doppler frequency of the positioning signals transmitted by the set of pseudolites are first programmed at each pseudolite.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein all pseudolites in the set of pseudolites have a same spreading code.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the receiver comprises a number of channels greater than 1 for a search and said acquiring of the positioning signals, said receiver configured to dedicate only one channel to the search for the positioning signals transmitted by each pseudolite in the set of pseudolites.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the positioning signals transmitted by each pseudolite in the set of pseudolites have frequencies belonging to a range of frequencies with no intersection with a range of frequencies used to transmit the positioning signals by the satellites belonging to the constellation of satellites of the satellite navigation system.