Correlation sidelobe proximity screening

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10935623-B2
Application number	US-201816120008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2018
Priority date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A process of screening direction finding solutions to reduce the number of valid direction finding solution rejections while maintaining an acceptable level of wild bearings being reported utilizing the proximity of the correlation values of the highest correlation and second highest correlation given a correlation pattern of a detected signal of unknown origin.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A direction finding system comprising:
an installation platform;
an antenna array including a plurality of antennas on the installation platform;
a database including expected signal characteristics of a detected signal;
at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, implements operations to determine an angle of arrival (AOA) of the detected signal with an unknown direction of origin, the instructions including:
detect the signal with an unknown direction of origin;
compare the signal to the database;
assign a correlation between the detected signal characteristics and the expected signal characteristics;
identify a first correlation peak value from a first correlation between the detected signal and the expected signal characteristics;
compare the first correlation peak value to a minimum threshold;
wherein if the first correlation peak value meets or exceeds the minimum threshold, then the method further comprises:
identify a second correlation peak value from a second correlation between the detected signal and the expected signal characteristics;
compare the first correlation peak value with the second correlation peak value to determine a difference in correlation;
compare the difference in correlation to a side lobe proximity threshold; and
report an angle of arrival (AOA) correlated to the first correlation peak value as the direction of origin of the detected signal only if the difference in correlation is greater than or equal to the side lobe proximity threshold.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the installation platform further comprises:
at least one vehicle selected from a group comprising a tank, a truck, a ship, a projectile, a manned aircraft, an unmanned aircraft, and a helicopter.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the side lobe proximity threshold is selected from a range of 0.02-0.04.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
exclude all AOA reporting if the difference in correlation is less than the side lobe proximity threshold.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first correlation peak value is a highest peak and the second correlation peak value is a second highest peak.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
exclude every first correlation peak value that falls below the minimum threshold.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the minimum threshold value is selected from a range of correlation values of 0.90-0.97.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
not reporting the AOA if the difference in correlation is less than the side lobe proximity threshold.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
provide the antenna array including a plurality of antennas operable to detect at least one of phase difference and amplitude difference of the detected signal.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the instructions further include:
network the antenna array through a plurality of signal combining components.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
calibrate the array to detect a signal having at least one polarization.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructions further include:
process the detected signal through a correlative interferometry direction finding (CIDF) process.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the side lobe proximity threshold is dynamic.

14. A computer program product including one or more non-transitory machine-readable media having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to determine a direction of origin of a detected signal, performing:
obtaining the detected signal from an antenna array;
comparing detected signal characteristics from the detected signal to expected signal characteristics from a database comprising at least one of prior signal characteristics of the detected signal and simulated signal characteristics;
assigning a correlation between the detected signal characteristics and the expected signal characteristics;
identifying a first correlation peak value from a first correlation between the detected signal characteristics and the expected signal characteristics;
comparing the first correlation peak value to a minimum threshold;
wherein if the first correlation peak value meets or exceeds the minimum threshold, further comprising:
identifying a second correlation peak value from a second correlation between the detected signal characteristics and the expected signal characteristics;
compare the first correlation peak value with the second correlation peak value to determine a difference in correlation;
comparing the difference in correlation to a side lobe proximity threshold; and
reporting an angle of arrival (AOA) correlated to the first correlation peak value as the direction of origin of the detected signal only if the difference in correlation is greater than or equal to the side lobe proximity threshold.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the expected signal characteristics comprise at least one of phase, amplitude, frequency, and polarization.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the expected signal characteristics are stored according to at least one of azimuth and elevation.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the detected signal characteristics comprise at least one of phase difference and amplitude difference.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the minimum threshold value is 0.93.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the side lobe proximity threshold is 0.03.

Assignees

• Bae Sys Inf & Elect Sys Integ

Inventors

• Clymer Richard E

Classifications

• H01Q1/3233 Primary

  particular used as part of a sensor or in a security system, e.g. for automotive radar, navigation systems · CPC title

• G01S3/023

  Monitoring or calibrating · CPC title

• G01S3/14

  Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction {(aerial arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00; combinations of different interacting aerial units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q21/29; aerials or aerial systems providing at least two radiation patterns H01Q25/00)} · CPC title

• G01S3/04

  Details · CPC title

• G01S3/28 Primary

  using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics · CPC title