System and method for determining patrol speed

• US 7,218,271 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2004
• Issued: 05/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Applied Concepts Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Applied Concepts Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Vanman, Robert V., Gammenthaler, Robert S., Aker, John L., Mead, Alan B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BARKER, MATTHEW M
• Application Number:
  US10/863,708
• Publication Number:
  US 20050062642A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 342/104
• US Class Current: 342/104
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/52 Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/932 using own vehicle data, e.g. ground speed, steering wheel direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93272 in the back of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/06 Cathode-ray tube displays or other two dimensional or three-dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/064 using a display memory for image processing G01S7/298 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/2883 using FFT processing

Abstract

A system for processing vehicle speed data for a vehicle is provided. The system includes a front antenna assembly of the vehicle generating a front digital signal, and a rear antenna assembly of the vehicle generating a rear digital signal. A fast Fourier transform system converts the front digital signal into front frequency shift data and the rear digital signal into rear frequency shift data. A patrol speed system matches the front frequency shift data and the rear frequency shift data and generates a vehicle speed for the vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for processing vehicle speed data for a vehicle comprising:

a front antenna assembly of the vehicle generating a front digital signal;

a rear antenna assembly of the vehicle generating a rear digital signal;

a fast Fourier transform system converting the front digital signal into front frequency shift data and the rear digital signal into rear frequency shift data; and

a patrol speed system matching the front frequency shift data and the rear frequency shift data and generating a vehicle speed for the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a candidate selection system selecting one or more candidates in the front frequency shift data and one or more corresponding candidates in the rear frequency shift data.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a candidate selection system selecting one or more closing spectrum candidates in the front frequency shift data and matching the closing spectrum candidates to corresponding opening spectrum candidates in the front frequency shift data; and

a directivity system receiving the closing spectrum candidates and the opening spectrum candidates and generating directivity data.

4. The system of claim 2 further comprising a directivity system receiving the front frequency shift candidate data and the rear frequency shift candidate data and generating directivity data.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a patrol speed maintenance system receiving the front frequency shift data, the rear frequency shift data, and the vehicle speed and determining whether to re-acquire the vehicle speed.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a pull down effects system receiving the front frequency shift data, the rear frequency shift data, and the vehicle speed and determining whether the front frequency shift data or the rear frequency shift data has been polled down due to interference.

7. The system of claim 5 further comprising a pull down effects system receiving the front frequency shift data, the rear frequency shift data, and the vehicle speed and generating pull down effects data, wherein the patrol speed maintenance system receives the pull down effects data and determines whether to re-acquire the vehicle speed based on the pull down effects data.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the front antenna assembly of the vehicle generating the front digital signal comprises means for generating the front digital signal.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the rear antenna assembly of the vehicle generating the rear digital signal comprises means for generating the rear digital signal.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the fast Fourier transform system converting the front digital signal into front frequency shift data and the rear digital signal into rear frequency shift data comprises means for convening the front digital signal into front frequency shift data and the rear digital signal into rear frequency shift data.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the patrol speed system matching the front frequency shift data and the rear frequency shift data and generating the vehicle speed for the vehicle comprises means for matching the front frequency shift data and the rear frequency shift data and generating the vehicle speed for the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 2 wherein the candidate selection system selecting one or more candidates in the front frequency shift data and one or more corresponding candidates in the rear frequency shift data comprises means for selecting one or more candidates in the front frequency shift data and one or more corresponding candidates in the rear frequency shift data.

13. A method for processing vehicle speed data for a vehicle comprising:

generating a first signal at a front antenna of the vehicle;

converting the first signal to a first digital signal;

selecting one or more first frequency component candidates from the first digital signal;

generating a second signal at a rear antenna;

converting the second signal to a second digital signal;

selecting one or more second frequency component candidates from the second digital signal;

matching the first frequency component candidates and the second frequency component candidates to generate an estimated vehicle speed; and

wherein selecting the first frequency component candidates from the first digital signal comprises selecting the first frequency component candidates from a closing spectrum.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein selecting the first frequency component candidates from the first digital signal further comprises matching the first frequency component candidates from the closing spectrum to corresponding first frequency component candidates from an opening spectrum.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising comparing the closing spectrum first frequency components to the opening spectrum first frequency components to establish directivity.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein selecting the second frequency component candidates from the second digital signal comprises selecting the second frequency component candidates from an opening spectrum.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein selecting the second frequency component candidates from the second digital signal further comprises matching the second frequency component candidates from the opening spectrum to corresponding second frequency component candidates from a closing spectrum.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising using the first frequency component candidates and the second frequency component candidates to establish directivity.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising monitoring the first frequency component candidates and the second frequency component candidates to determine whether monitoring failure has occurred.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising using the first frequency component candidates and the second frequency component candidates to determine whether a momentary variation due to pull down has occurred if it is determined that monitoring failure has occurred.