System and method for detection and tracking of targets
System and method for detection and tracking of targets, which in a preferred embodiment is based on the use of fractional Fourier transformation of time-domain signals to compute projections of the auto and cross ambiguity functions along arbitrary line segments. The efficient computational algorithms of the preferred embodiment are used to detect the position and estimate the velocity of signals, such as those encountered by active or passive sensor systems. Various applications of the proposed algorithm in the analysis of time-frequency domain signals are also disclosed.
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This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/691,245 filed on Oct. 21, 2003, which in turn is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/875,116 filed Jun. 6, 2001, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,636,174, which in turn claims priority of provisional application Ser. No. 60/209,758 filed Jun. 6, 2000.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to active and passive sensor applications, and more particularly is directed to efficient systems and methods for detection and tracking of one or more targets.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONDetection and tracking of targets by sensor systems have been the subject matter of a large number of practical applications. Sensor systems designed for this purpose may use propagating wave signals, such as electromagnetic or acoustical signals. Some sensor systems, such as radar and active sonar systems, are designed to receive reflections of a transmitted signal generated by an appropriate conventional transmitter. This type of sensor systems will be referred to as active sensor systems. In contrast with the active sensor systems, in many cases sensor systems are designed to receive signals not generated by a cooperating transmitter. Such sensor systems will be referred to next as passive sensor systems.
Active sensor systems are generally used for detection of scattering objects that show great variation in size and type. In the presence of a scattering object, the transmitted signal arrives to the receiving sensor system with a certain time delay, which is related to the range of the scattering object (i.e., the distance to it). Also, if the scattering object is moving, the reflected signal exhibits a spectral shift that is known as a Doppler shift. The Doppler shift is related to the relative velocity of the object with respect to the sensor system. In order to provide an example of a received signal in an active sensor system, a simulation has been conducted for a radar system that transmits a phase-coded radar signal as shown in
Ar,s(τ,v)=∫r(t+τ/2)s*(t−τ/2)ej2πvtdt (1.1)
where s(t) is the transmitted signal and r(t) is the received signal. For the transmitted and received signal pair shown in
In the case of a noisy reception of the reflected signal, the peak location of the cross-ambiguity function still provides a reliable estimate of the delay and the Doppler shift caused by the scattering object [1]. Therefore, in accordance with the present invention it is possible to detect the presence of a scattering object by finding the peak locations of the cross-ambiguity function and comparing them with appropriately chosen threshold levels. Those peaks that exceed the thresholds can be identified as scattering objects, and the locations of the peaks will provide the corresponding delay and Doppler shift information at the same time.
Although the use of the cross-ambiguity function for detection of scattering objects and estimation of their corresponding delay and Doppler shifts is known in the prior art, this approach has only been used in sophisticated sensor systems because of the high cost and difficulty of implementation. Therefore, in most of the applications where the cost is a critical issue, the sensor systems are designed to detect the presence of scattering objects and estimate either their range or their velocities, but not both. The main objective of the present invention in relation to active sensor systems is to provide an efficient and low-cost system and method that can reliably detect scattering objects and estimate both their delay and their Doppler shifts at the same time.
Passive sensor systems are generally used for the interception of signals emitted by transmitters that are not in cooperation with the sensor system, i.e., operate independently of it. Unlike the active sensor systems where the range and the velocity of the objects can be estimated from the reflected signals, passive sensor systems cannot decide on the range and the velocity of the intercepted transmitter without extensive prior information about the transmitter. In passive reception, the main purpose is the detection of an existing transmitter. Once a transmitter is detected, its intercepted signal can be analyzed to obtain information about the type and purpose of the transmitter. This information generally plays a crucial role in determining what type of action should be taken in the presence of the detected transmitter.
Ar(τ,v)=∫r(t+τ/2)r*(t−τ/2)ej2πvtdt (1.2)
where r(t) is the received signal. The real part of the noisy received signal is shown in
The interested reader is directed to the disclosure of the following publications. Reference numerals used in the following description correspond to the numbering in the listing below.
[1] P. M. Woodward, Probability and Information Theory, with Applications to Radar, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., pp. 115-125,1953.
[2] V. Namias, “The fractional order Fourier transform and its application to quantum Mechanics”, J. Inst. Math. Appl., vol. 25, pp. 241-265, 1980.
[3] W. Lohmann and B. H. Soffer, “Relationships between the Radon-Wigner and fractional Fourier transforms”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 11, pp. 1798-1801, 1994.
[4] A. K. Özdemir and O. Arikan, “Fast computation of the ambiguity function and the Wigner distribution on arbitrary line segments”, IEEE trans. Signal Process., vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 381-393, February 2001.
[5] A. K. Özdemir and O. Arikan, “Efficient computation of the ambiguity function and the Wigner distribution on arbitrary line segments”, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Circuits and Systems, vol. IV, pp. 171-174, May 1999.
[6] I. Raveh and D. Mendlovic, “New properties of the Radon transform of the cross-Wigner/ambiguity distribution function”, IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol.47, no. 7, pp. 2077-2080, July 1999.
[7] D. Mendlovic and H. M. Ozaktas, “Fractional Fourier transforms and their optical implementation: I”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 1875-1881, 1993.
[8] H. M. Ozaktas and D. Mendlovic, “Fractional Fourier transforms and their optical implementation: II”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. 2522-2531, 1993.
[9] H. M. Ozaktas, O. Arikan, M. A. Kutay and G. Bozdagi, “Digital computation of the fractional Fourier transform”, IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 44, no. 9, pp. 2141-2150, September 1996.
[10] L. B. Almeida, “The fractional Fourier transform and time-frequency Representations”, IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 3084-3091, November 1994.
[11] L. Cohen, “Time-frequency distributions—A review”, Proc. IEEE, vol. 77, no.7 pp. 941-981, July 1989.
[12] R. N. Bracewell, The Fourier Transform and its Applications, McGraw-Hill Book Company, pp. 356-381, 1978.
[13] G. H. Golub and C. F. Van Loan, Matrix Computations, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 206-259, 1996.
[14] P. W. East (ed.), Advanced ESM Technology, Microwave Exhibitions and Publishers Ltd., 1988.
[15] V. G. Nebabin, Methods and Techniques of Radar Recognition, Artech House, Inc., pp. 106-125, 1995.
[16] R. E. Blahut, W. Miller and Jr. C. H. Wilcox, Radar and Sonar—Part I, Springer—Verlag, vol. 32, pp. 1-29, 1991.
[17] R. E. Kalman, “A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems”, J. Basic Engineering, Trans. ASME Series D, vol. 82, pp.35-45, 1960.
[18] Per-Olof Gutman and Mordekhai Velger, “Tracking Targets Using Adaptive Kalman Filtering”, IEEE Trans. Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 691-699, September 1990.
[19] L. R. Rabiner, R. W. Schafer and C. M. Rader, “The Chirp z-Transform Algorithm”, IEEE Trans. Audio and Electroacoustics, vol. AU-1 7, no. 2, pp. 86-92, June 1969.
Additional information is also provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,760,732; 5,657,022; 5,583,505; 5,548,157 and 5,457,462, which are incorporated herein by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is based on the simultaneous computation of distance and Doppler shift information using fast computation of the ambiguity function and/or Wigner distribution of received signals along on arbitrary line. By using the fractional Fourier transformation of time domain signals, closed form expressions for arbitrary projections of their auto or cross ambiguity function are derived. By utilizing discretization of the obtained analytical expressions, efficient algorithms are proposed in accordance to the present invention to compute uniformly spaced samples of the Wigner distribution and the ambiguity function located on arbitrary line segments. With repeated use of the proposed algorithms, in alternative embodiments of the invention, samples in the Wigner or ambiguity domain can be computed on non-Cartesian sampling grids, such as polar grids, which are the natural sampling grids of chirp-like signals. The ability to obtain samples of the Wigner distribution and ambiguity function over both rectangular and polar grids is potentially useful in a wide variety of application areas, including time-frequency domain kernel design, multicomponent signal analysis, time-frequency domain signal detection and particle location analysis in Fresnel holograms.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the drawings are to be used for the purpose of illustration only, and not as a definition of the invention.
The present invention can be implemented using the generalized structure shown in
The receiver 10 of the system generally functions to receive the input signals, convert them to baseband signals that are typically detected in quadrature channels, and finally to filter the output. A more detailed block diagram of a receiver used in accordance with this invention is shown in
Processor blocks 20 and 30 generally form signal frames for further processing, preferably including time scaling. Further, processors 20, 30 compute various transformations of the input signal, which are designed to determine a time-frequency function of the (transmitted or) received signals and to detect peaks of the function, which are indicative of the presence of one or more targets, and their position and velocity at any time.
Tracking system 40 generally tracks the position of identified targets, and further communicates with the processors in determining optimum time windows, etc. Finally, display 50 shows output prameters to an operator. Individual blocks of the system are considered in more detail next.
A. The First System Processor
By choosing the frame positions Δti's and the frame durations Ti's properly, the frames can be constructed as overlapping or non-overlapping, as desired. For improved computational efficiency, in the implementation of the preferred embodiments, the following time-scaled signals are used:
ri(t)=
For a signal with approximate time duration T and band width B the preferred scaling constant is given by [9]:
sc=√{square root over (B/T)} (1.5)
For simplicity in the actual implementation, all of the constructed signal frames can be scaled with the same scaling constant. In this case, T should be chosen as the approximate time duration of the signal frame with the longest duration. Different scaling can be used in alternative embodiments.
Similarly, in accordance with the present invention, for a digital receiver the time-scaled signal frames are constructed from the available samples of the received signal as:
where Δr is the square root of the time-bandwidth product TB of the signal
In the preferred embodiment shown in
where ai
is the kernel of the transformation defined as:
where the transformation angle φi
is defined as:
If the order ai
In the case of a digital receiver, several algorithms can be utilized to efficiently obtain close approximations to the uniformly spaced samples of the continuous fractional Fourier transform. For completeness, such an efficient computational algorithm is given in Appendix A [4], [5]. By using the tabulated algorithm, the following set of discrete fractional Fourier transformations are computed for each of the constructed signal frames:
where ri[n] is given in (1.6) and Ri[n] is the discrete Fourier transform of ri[n] given as
where Δr is the square root of the time-bandwith product TB of the signal
is defined as:
where the transformation angle φi
are defined as in Eq. (1.9). The discrete fractional Fourier transformation has very important relationships to the continuous fractional Fourier transformation, and it can be used to approximate samples of the continuous transformation:
The above-given form of the discrete fractional Fourier transformation can be computed efficiently by using algorithms that make use of fast Fourier transformation [9]. For completeness, an efficient computational algorithm is given in Appendix A [9]. In actual real-time implementations, such a fast computational algorithm preferably is programmed in an integrated chip. The orders of the discrete fractional Fourier transformations can be chosen as in the continuous case by investigating the properties of the received signal and clutter.
The preferred configuration of the first embodiment shown in
The results of the computed fractional Fourier transformations are complex valued signals. In the following processing blocks 215, 225, by computing their squared magnitudes, they are converted to real valued signals as:
Then, in blocks 230 the correlation between the obtained
is computed as:
Finally, a standard detector is used in 240 on the obtained correlation results to identify the presence of peaks above the expected noise floor. Locations of identified peaks are used as part of the processing in the second processor 30, as shown in
As mentioned above, the ambiguity function reveals the presence of an object in both active and passive sensor applications. However, due to the associated complexity in the implementation of the required processing, detection on the ambiguity domain is rarely used in practice. In this patent application, an alternative method of detection of an object in the ambiguity domain is proposed. In this new approach, projections of the magnitude squared ambiguity function are used to detect the presence of an object. These projections are defined as:
Pr
where ρ is the projection domain variable and φi
A simplified form for the expression in Eq. (1.15) can be obtained by using the following rotation property relating the ambiguity function and the fractional Fourier transformation:
where
are the (ai
is the same as the rotated ambiguity function
with an angle of rotation equal to the transformation angle φi
First, this well known rotation property for auto-Wigner distribution is generalized to the cross-Wigner distribution:
Then, by using the fact that there is a 2-D Fourier relation between the cross-ambiguity function and the cross-Wigner distribution [11], and by recalling that 2-D Fourier transform of a rotated signal is the same as the rotated 2-D Fourier transform of the original, the relation in Eq. (1.16) can be obtained.
Thus by using the rotation property given in Eq. (1.16), the projection given in Eq. (1.15) can be written as
in terms of the fractional Fourier transforms
Then, by using the definition of the cross-ambiguity function in Eq. (1.11), the projection given by Eq. (1.19) can be written as:
where δ(t) is the Dirac-delta function [12]. Then, by using the sifting property of the Dirac-delta function, the expression for the projection can be simplified into:
Finally, by changing the variable of integration with t+ρ/2, the expression for the projection given by Eq. (1.21) can be expressed as:
In this final form, the required projection is the same as the correlation of
Thus, the computed correlation ci
where
are the discrete fractional Fourier transformations given by Eq. (1.10).
In actual implementation of the above detailed detection method, the choice of the projection angles, φi
In some active sensor applications, the transmitted signal waveform can be designed to obtain an improved performance in a given operational environment. In the presence of a statistical description of the clutter and noise at the receiver, the transmitted signal can be designed so that its computed projections in the preferred structure of the first embodiment have more reliable detection performance. For instance, if the clutter has a uniform distribution in the shaded area shown in
B. Second System Processor
As detailed in the previous section, in the preferred structure of the first processor to detect the presence of an object, single or multiple correlations can be computed. In the case of active sensor applications, the second processor is designed to estimate the delay and Doppler of the scattering objects. In the case of detection based on a single correlation computation in the first processor, the delay and Doppler estimates can be obtained by an implementation of the idea presented in
where sc is the time-scaling constant defined in Eq. (1.5) and
When more than one correlation are computed in the first processor, the delay and Doppler estimates can still be obtained by using the method presented for the single correlation case detailed above. This method can be implemented for the individual correlations yielding a set of detection results. Then, these detection results can be sorted to identify distinct scattering objects. The detection results corresponding to the same scattering object can be averaged to obtain more reliable estimates. In the case of multiple correlation computations in the first processor, another alternative method can be used, which is based on the idea shown in
The weighted least squares optimal solution to the above linear system of equations can be obtained as:
where Wi is a the positive definite weight matrix, and the {circumflex over (z)}i=[{circumflex over (τ)}1 {circumflex over (v)}i]T corresponds to the estimated peak location of the Ar
In the case of multiple peaks detected on individual correlations, in accordance with the invention the corresponding peak locations of the Ar
In passive sensor applications, the embodiments of the second processor perform measurements on the intercepted signal and classify it based on the obtained results. Some of the intercepted signals have short duration, that are called pulse signals, while some of the intercepted signals have very long duration, that are called continuous signals. In the preferred structure of the second processor 30, measurements are performed on the intercepted signal to determine its time of arrival, amplitude and duration. Since these measurements can be performed by using well-known conventional methods, no further detail is presented here on these measurements. The interested reader is directed to the disclosure in [14], [15]. For intercepted pulse signals, the measurements of time of arrival, amplitude, duration and pulse repetition intervals can be used to classify an intercepted signal. However, the success of these type of classifiers is limited because these measurements alone do not provide sufficient information on the modulation of an intercepted signal. Furthermore, for intercepted continuous signals, since pulse duration and pulse repetition interval cannot be measured, the modulation information plays an even greater role in the classification of intercepted continuous signals.
In this patent application, a new method is proposed to obtain important information on the modulation of an intercepted signal in real time. To illustrate the idea, examples on both pulse and continuous signals are investigated here. Detection results on three different pulse signals shown in
Similar conclusions can be drawn from the examination of the three different continuous signals shown in
In the preferred structure of the second processor, this classification method is implemented as follows. In advance of the actual operation, the projection domain signatures of the signals that may be intercepted in the operational environment, and are computed over a dense sampling grid. Based on a detailed study of these signatures, a few samples out of each signature are chosen as the critical set of samples. For each signature, most of these critical samples can be chosen around the peak locations of the respective signature. Then, the obtained critical samples are stored in a digital memory to be retrieved when necessary. This reduction in the number of samples in each signal signature to a few critical ones, provides significant saving in the computation of the required projections. During the actual operation, the projections corresponding to the critical samples are computed by using the fast computational algorithm presented in the detailed description of the first processor. Next, the obtained projections are compared with a set of stored signal signatures to find a matching one. If there is a match, the matching signal type is reported to the third processor of the system of the invention, which keeps track of the active transmitters. If no match is found, the signature of the intercepted signal is transferred to the tracker 40 to be stored for future analysis.
C. The System Tracker
The tracker reports the obtained estimates of the delay and Doppler shift caused by individual scattering objects as well as their directions to both the first and second processor used in the system of the invention. In the first processor this information is used in the construction of the received signal frames. In the preferred way, short frames are constructed around the expected delays of the scattering objects whose estimated directions are very close to the current search direction of the sensor system. In this way, the likelihood of having reflections from multiple objects in a received signal frame is kept low. Furthermore, for those signal frames that are around the expected delays of the tracked objects, the detection thresholds used in the first embodiment can be adjusted for reliable detection of the tracked objects. In other signal frames, which do not contain expected reflections of the tracked objects, the search for new scattering objects are conducted as detailed in the above sections.
In the second processor, the information reported by the tracker is used to estimate the delays and Doppler shifts corresponding to the tracked objects. The available estimates of the tracker can be utilized in all the alternative estimation methods presented in the detailed description of the second processor. In the case of a single correlation computation in the first embodiment, the search for the cross-ambiguity function peaks can be conducted over short line segments whose centers are close to the reported delay and Doppler shifts of the tracked objects. This idea is illustrated in
In passive sensor applications, the tracker keeps a list of the intercepted transmitters and their measured parameters by the second processor. These parameters include the computed projection domain signature, time of arrival, amplitude and duration of the intercepted signal, as well as the direction of the intercepted signal and the operation frequency interval of the receiver system. According to the current search direction and frequency interval, the tracker reports the appropriate subset of active transmitters in this list to both the first and second processors of the invention. Furthermore, the tracker controls the operations performed in the first and second processor for efficient use of the available resources. In the preferred structure of the first processor, a set of projections given in Eq. (1.22) or Eq. (1.23) is computed at the projection angles dictated by the tracker. The obtained projections are reported to the second processor. In the preferred structure of the second processor, further measurements are performed on the intercepted signal to determine its time of arrival, amplitude and duration. Based on the obtained information on the intercepted signal, a comparison of the intercepted signal is made with the set of signals chosen by the tracker. If there is a match found, the matching signal type is reported to the third processor (the tracker) of the invention, which keeps track of the active transmitters. If there is no match found, the signature of the intercepted signal is compared with a larger set of previously stored signal signatures. If there is a match found in this second round of search, the matching signal is reported to the tracker to be added to the active list of transmitters. However, if there is no match found even in this second round of search, the intercepted signal is transferred to the tracker to be stored for future analysis.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive nor to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention. Various embodiments and modifications that are suited to a particular use are contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents.
APPENDIX AObject of the algorithm:
Given samples r[n]Δr(n/(2Δr)),−N≦n≦N−1, of the analog signal r(t) obtained at twice the Nyquist's rate, to compute the discrete fractional Fourier transform ra[m],−N≦m≦N−1. It is assumed that N≧Δr2, where Δr is the square root of the approximate time duration (T) and band width (B) product BT of the signal
Object of the algorithm:
Given samples r[n]Δr(n/(2Δr)) and s[n]Δs(n/(2Δr)),−N≦n≦N−1, of the analog signals r(t) and s(t) obtained at twice the Nyquist's rate, to approximate N′ samples of the cross ambiguity function of r(t) and s(t) along the line segment LA as shown in
Claims
1. A method for estimating one or more samples of a cross ambiguity function of a first signal and a second signal, the method comprising:
- computing fractional Fourier transform of the first signal; and
- estimating one or more samples of the cross-ambiguity function based on the computed fractional Fourier transforms of the first signal and a fractional Fourier transform of the second signal.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of estimating is further based on using a chirp-z transform.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising computing fractional Fourier transform of the second signal.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the fractional Fourier transform of the second signal is computed in advance.
5. A signal processing method comprising:
- receiving a signal, the received signal being a reflection of a transmitted signal from at least one object;
- computing a first slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and the transmitted signal using fractional Fourier transforms of the received and transmitted signals; and
- estimating at least one property of the at least one object based on the computed slice.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the estimated at least one property is the distance to the at least one object.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein the estimated at least one property is the radial speed of the at least one object.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein the estimated properties are the distance to the at least one object and the radial speed of the at least one object.
9. The method of claim 5, wherein the first slice has an orientation based on the auto-ambiguity function of the transmitted signal.
10. The method of claim 5, wherein the first slice has a predetermined orientation.
11. The method of claim 5 further comprising computing a second slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and the transmitted signal.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the received signal is reflected from two or more objects.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one object property is estimated for two or more objects.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one property is not the same for all objects.
15. The method of claim 5, wherein the received signal is a continuous waveform signal.
16. The method of claim 5, wherein the received signal is a discrete time signal.
17. A signal processing method comprising:
- receiving a signal, the received signal being a reflection of a transmitted signal from at least one object;
- computing a first slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and the transmitted signal using fractional Fourier transforms of the received and transmitted signals; and
- estimating at least one parameter of a component of the received signal reflected from the at least one object.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the estimated parameter is time delay of the signal components.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein the estimated parameter is Doppler shift of the signal component.
20. The method of claim 17, wherein the estimated parameters are Doppler shift and time delay of the signal components.
21. The method of claim 17, wherein the first slice has an orientation based on the auto-ambiguity function of the transmitted signal.
22. The method of claim 17, wherein the first slice has a predetermined orientation.
23. The method of claim 17 further comprising computing a second slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and the transmitted signal.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the received signal has two or more components reflected from two or more objects.
25. The method of claim 24 further comprising estimating parameter of the two or more signal components of the received signal associated with the two or more objects.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one parameter is not the same for all the components.
27. The method of claim 17, wherein the received signal is a continuous waveform signal.
28. The method of claim 17, wherein the received signal is a discrete time signal.
29. A signal processing method comprising:
- receiving a signal;
- computing a first slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and a reference signal different from the received signal using fractional Fourier transforms of the received and reference signals; and
- estimating at least one parameter of a component of the received signal.
30. The method of claim 29, wherein the reference signal is one of: (a) a stored signal, and (b) a signal transmitted by a device.
31. The method of claim 29, wherein the received signal is one of: (a) a signal reflected from one or more objects, and (b) a signal transmitted by a device.
32. The method of claim 29, wherein the estimated parameter is time delay of the signal components.
33. The method of claim 29, wherein the estimated parameter is Doppler shift of the signal component.
34. The method of claim 29, wherein the estimated parameters are Doppler shift and time delay of the signal components.
35. The method of claim 29, wherein the first slice has an orientation based on the auto-ambiguity function of the reference signal.
36. The method of claim 29, wherein the first slice has a predetermined orientation.
37. The method of claim 29 further comprising computing a second slice of the cross-ambiguity function associated with the received signal and the reference signal.
38. The method of claim 37, wherein the received signal has components.
39. The method of claim 38 further comprising estimating one or more parameter of the two or more signal components of the received signal.
40. The method of claim 39, wherein the at least one parameter is not the same for all the components.
41. The method of claim 29, wherein the received signal is a continuous waveform signal.
42. The method of claim 29, wherein the received signal is a discrete time signal.
43. A signal processing system comprising:
- means for computing a slice of the cross ambiguity function associated with a received signal reflected from at least one object and a signal transmitted to the at least one objects using fractional Fourier transforms of the received and transmitted signals; and
- means for estimating one or more of (a) delay of a component of the received signal reflected from one of the at least one objects; (b) Doppler shift of a component of the received signal reflected from one of the at least one objects; (c) distance to one of the at least one object; and (d) radial speed of one of the at least one object; all based on the computed slice.
44. The system of claim 43, wherein the means for computing the slice comprises means for determining one or more peaks of the computed slice.
45. The system of claim 43, wherein the means for computing the slice comprises means for selecting an orientation of the slice.
46. The system of claim 45, wherein the selected orientation of the slice is based on one of (a) a priori knowledge; and (b) the auto-ambiguity function of the transmitted signal.
47. The system of claim 43, wherein means for computing the slice is operable to compute two or more slices of the cross ambiguity function.
48. The system of claim 47, wherein means for estimating is operable to estimate one or more of (a) delays of component of the received signal reflected from two or more of the at least one object; (b) Doppler shifts of component of the received signal reflected from two or more of the at least one object; (c) distances to the two or more of the at least one object; and (d) radial speed of the two or more of the at least one object relative to the system; all based on the computed two or more slices.
49. The system of claim 43 further comprising means for tracking the at least one object.
50. The system of claim 43, wherein the received signal is a continuous waveform signal.
51. The system of claim 43, wherein the received signal is a discrete time signal.
52. A computer program product comprising:
- a medium with instructions stored thereon that cause a computer system to a. receive a signal; b. compute one or more slices of the cross ambiguity function associated with the received signal and a reference signal using fractional Fourier transforms of the received and transmitted signals; and c. estimate one or more of (i) delay of a component of the received signal reflected from one of the at least one objects; (ii) Doppler shift of the component of the received signal reflected from the one of the at least one objects; (iii) distance to the one of the at least one object; and (iv) radial speed of the one of the at least one object; all based on the computed slice.
53. The computer program product of claim 52, wherein the instructions stored on the medium further cause the computer system to select an orientation of the computed one or more slices.
54. The computer program of claim 53, wherein the orientation of the first computed slice is based on one of (a) a priori knowledge; and (b) the auto-ambiguity function of the transmitted signal.
55. The computer program of claim 54, wherein the orientations of one or more slices computed after the first slice are based on the orientation of the first computed slice.
56. The computer program product of claim 52, wherein the instructions stored on the medium cause the computer system to estimate one or more of (a) delays of signal components associated with two or more objects; (b) Doppler shifts of the signal component associated with the two or more objects; (c) distances to the two or more objects; and (d) radial speed of the two or more objects; all based on the computed two or more slices.
57. The computer program product of claim 52, wherein the medium has additional instructions that cause the computer system to track the at least one object.
58. The computer program product of claim 52, wherein the instructions stored on the medium that cause the computer system to receive a signal cause the computer system to receive a continuous form signal.
59. The computer program product of claim 52, wherein the instructions stored on the medium that cause the computer system to receive the signal cause the computer system to receive a discrete signal.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 21, 2006
Publication Date: May 10, 2007
Applicant:
Inventors: Orhan Arikan (Bilkent), Ahmet Ozdemir (Yenimahalle)
Application Number: 11/645,318
International Classification: G01S 13/00 (20060101);