Method for improving target location accuracy in a direction finding system

• Main Authors: Paul, Jeffrey A, Clymer, Richard E, Slocum, Dean C
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.09.2019
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; NAVIGATION; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURVEYING; TESTING

A method for improving target location accuracy in direction finding systems is disclosed. A target search region is identified based on a set of received signals, and the target search region is projected onto the earth's surface. An initial search grid, which is smaller than the target search region, is placed within the target search region. Next, the initial search grid is expanded to a full search grid by using an optimum number of virtual grid points in order to cover the entire target search region. The correlation coefficients at the virtual grid points between the estimated phases of emitted signals and the estimated phases of the received signals are then calculated. A target is designated as being at a location associated with the highest correlation coefficient. At this point, a new travel path can be initiated to engage or avoid the target.