Clutter Elimination Patents (Class 342/159)
  • Patent number: 9443286
    Abstract: The embodiments provide an image processing method and apparatus, which combine a wavelet transform method with a non-local means method, comprising: performing N-level decomposition of an original gray image by using a wavelet transform method; and performing non-local means processing and wavelet reconstruction of each level of components one by one starting from an N-th level, so as to obtain a processed gray image. The image processing method and apparatus can effectively remove various image noises, and well reserve the image details.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Jianrong Wu, Xuan Fu, Zheng Wang, Akihiro Higashi
  • Patent number: 9348021
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for performing adaptive motion compensation to remove translational movement between a sensor and a target using data from the sensor. After whitening, data can be processed to select a target and focus frequency components. Dynamic sliding window processing can be performed on processed time domain data to estimate an instantaneous range rate for the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Aaron C. Wallace
  • Patent number: 9341509
    Abstract: An FMCW radar level meter has an RF signal processing module, an intermediate frequency (IF) signal processing module, and a computation and display module. A signal generator of the RF signal processing module generates a first RF signal, which is radiated by an antenna to a measured object. The antenna received a second RF signal reflected by the measured object. The IF signal processing module processes the second RF signal and compares the first RF signal with the second RF signal. The computation and display module calculates and displays a distance between the FMCW radar level meter and the measured object. Using the RF signal processing module and the IF signal processing module to process the second RF signal, the issues of noise and temperature coefficient shift can be resolved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: FINETEK CO., LTD.
    Inventors: I-Chu Lin, Shu-Chien Cheng, Yi-Yan Lee, Hui-Chih Hsu, Chao-Kai Cheng
  • Patent number: 9335922
    Abstract: An electronic device includes a display, a plurality of antennae arranged and constructed to emit a signal and to receive backscatter from the signal, and a processor operably coupled to the antennae to utilize the received backscatter to detect location and at least one of size and shape of an object spaced from the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Inventors: Huanhuan Gu, James Paul Warden, Arnold Sheynman
  • Patent number: 9316730
    Abstract: A monitoring device includes a memory configured to store first and second background information related to positional information of a fixed object existing in a detection area of a radar device that receives a reflected wave from an object existing at an emission destination of an emitted radar wave and detects position and moving velocity information of the object as detection information of the object; and a processor configured to detect, upon receiving a first specified signal, a temporary fixed object existing in a detection area of the radar device by using the detection information and the first background information stored in the memory, and to detect, upon receiving a second specified signal, a movement object existing in the detection area of the radar device by using the detection information and the second background information stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2016
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Junko Kajiki, Mitsuru Ochi, Tomonori Ikeya, Kazuhiko Shite
  • Patent number: 9310480
    Abstract: A digital radar receiver generates the input signal which is a stream of complex numbers. The input signal is rearranged and sorted by measurement volumes, resulting in Doppler data vectors. Doppler data vectors are filtered using a number of different digital filters. The output Doppler data vectors of the filters together with the original Doppler data vector are the candidate signals. Each candidate signal is analyzed using several criteria in order to find the one signal which is most likely to be caused by precipitation and has the ground clutter removed by the filtering. The selected signal is then used to calculate the meteorological products. The selected signal is also used to derive a velocity value or velocity distribution while taking into account the effects of the filtering performed earlier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Inventor: Jorn Sierwald
  • Patent number: 9291659
    Abstract: A system includes an antenna having a substrate and a plurality of antenna elements disposed on the substrate. A processing device is configured to measure an aperture function across an aperture of the antenna and determine whether at least one of the antenna elements is blocked based at least in part on the measured aperture function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: James Paul Ebling
  • Patent number: 9279691
    Abstract: A plan through a space having a near field and a far field is determined. Using a sensor device, measurements of the far field are obtained and stored in an electronic memory. A processor uses the measurements to determine the viability of each far field plan among a plurality of candidate far field plans. The processor also determines a flexibility score for each of the candidate far field plans and selects a composite plan comprising the viable far field plan having a highest flexibility score among the viable candidate far field plans.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: APPLIED INVENTION, LLC
    Inventors: Adrian Kaehler, Kjerstin Williams, Mark E. Duttweiler
  • Patent number: 9276729
    Abstract: A method includes receiving a signal including a two-dimensional signal pattern in a time-frequency representation, the two-dimensional signal pattern including first reference resource elements at predetermined positions in the two-dimensional signal pattern. The method further includes determining a first covariance measure based on the first reference resource elements of the signal pattern. The method further includes determining a second covariance measure based on resource elements of the signal pattern different from the first reference resource elements. The method further includes determining a noise and interference covariance measure of the received signal based on the first covariance measure and based on the second covariance measure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Axel Clausen, Franz Eder
  • Patent number: 9251876
    Abstract: A method of retiming a circuit that includes a RAM having data stored therein, a register following the RAM, and registers preceding the RAM for registering input, address and enable signals of the RAM includes pushing a value in the register following the RAM back into a memory location in the RAM, pushing back data stored in the RAM and initial values in the registers preceding the RAM to accommodate the value pushed back from the register following the RAM, and setting new values in the registers preceding the RAM so that, on a first clock cycle after retiming, the circuit assumes a condition before retiming. The method also may be used to configure a programmable logic device with a user logic design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Altera Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Gamsa, Gordon Raymond Chiu
  • Patent number: 9223016
    Abstract: A pulse radar apparatus and a control method therefor are provided that can detect information about a target with a high degree of accuracy by allowing detection of target information at all times and updating a replica signal of a noise signal in order. When the number of sets of distance data n1 is determined to be more than the number of sets of all distance data Nr in step S5, it is determined that target information detection processing is finished, and replica signal generation processing is subsequently performed. The radar function is activated in steps S13, S15, S16, and the noise signal for each distance data is obtained in step S17. Thereafter, in steps S19, S21, S23, the first, second, and third background signals, respectively, are generated, and thereafter, in step S23, a replica signal is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignees: FURUKAWA ELECTRIC CO., LTD., FURUKAWA AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Kazutaka Kamimura, Yasushi Aoyagi, Yoshihito Ishida
  • Patent number: 9197262
    Abstract: A signal processing method includes inputting a digital signal, providing a plurality of coefficients; and determining an output. The output is approximately equal to an aggregate of a plurality of linear reference components, and each of the linear reference components is approximately equal to an aggregate of a corresponding set of digital signal samples that is scaled by the plurality of coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Roy G. Batruni
  • Patent number: 9194945
    Abstract: Described are radar systems and methods. A transmit pulse is generated by the radar system. A first portion of the transmit pulse is processed by the radar system to form transmit pulse data. A second portion of the transmit pulse is directed by the radar system into a monitored volume. A return signal is received by the radar system, the return signal at least partially comprising a portion of the second portion of the transmit pulse reflected by one or more objects in the monitored volume. The return signal is processed, by the radar system, to form return signal data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Laufer Wind Group LLC
    Inventors: Hamilton Morris Stewart, Eric David Laufer
  • Patent number: 9170324
    Abstract: Statistical movement analysis method that includes defining one or more movement signature types, wherein a movement signature type includes a set of movement parameters and values for the set of movement parameters and receiving data for objects monitored by a radar system at a plurality of times, the data including values acquired for the set of movement parameters. The method also includes discriminating the data for the monitored objects by comparing movement signatures of two or more of the monitored objects for a difference of statistical significance and characterizing the monitored objects based on the movement signatures of the monitored objects. The method also includes identifying one or more of the monitored objects by comparing the received data for a monitored object with the movement signature type to determine if any of the objects monitored by the radar system are moving consistent with the movement signature type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Marcus Alton Teter, Mark Frank Tryon
  • Patent number: 9121941
    Abstract: There is disclosed a method for counteracting the effect which crags and other such environmental formations can have on radar returns or returns in similar sensor systems. In particular it has been found that the gaps between crags can lead to false detections because of firstly the function of certain signal processors which compare the high frequency return from a certain cell to a low frequency return from that cell, and secondly the effect of smearing of the returns from one cell to another. The invention seeks to mitigate this effect by selecting the maximum low frequency return from a group of range cells as the high frequency offset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: BAE SYSTEMS PLC
    Inventor: Philip Trevelyan Edwards
  • Patent number: 9052288
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a fluorescence measuring apparatus capable of determining whether accuracy of measuring fluorescence lifetime is deteriorated or not due to adjustment of the apparatus. The fluorescence measuring apparatus for measuring fluorescence emitted when an objects to be measured are irradiated with laser light includes: a laser light source that irradiates each of the objects to be measured with intensity-modulated laser light; a light-receiving unit that receives fluorescence emitted when each of the objects to be measured is irradiated with the laser light; a signal processing unit that determines a fluorescence lifetime using a signal of the fluorescence received by the light-receiving unit; and a determining unit that determines whether or not a fluorescence lifetime dispersion of the objects caused by amplification of the signal of the fluorescence performed by the light-receiving unit or by the signal processing unit is larger than a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: MITSUI ENGINEERING & SHIPBUILDING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kazuteru Hoshishima
  • Patent number: 9041597
    Abstract: The present disclosure concerns a method for post-processing of radar data that uses information of Doppler speed as obtained by coherent processing of the input data, to reduce clutter due to waterbodies, in particular the sea clutter. The present disclosure further concerns a coherent radar provided with means suitable to implement the invention method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: SELEX SISTEMI INTEGRATI S.P.A.
    Inventors: Sergio Gallone, Felicia Amato, Antonio Brelati, Antonio Stile, Giovanni Golino
  • Patent number: 9037435
    Abstract: In embodiments, a device is illustrated for determining a sample rate difference between a first information signal and a second information signal including an offset determiner for determining for each of a plurality of segments of the first information signal, associated offset values which temporally align the plurality of segments with respect to the second information signal and a calculator for calculating the sample rate difference on the basis of the offset values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: OPTICOM DIPL.-ING. MICHAEL KEYHL GMBH
    Inventors: Christian Schmidmer, Roland Bitto, Michael Keyhl
  • Patent number: 9037391
    Abstract: An unmanned aircraft, unmanned aviation system and method for collision avoidance during the flight operation of an unmanned aircraft are provided. The unmanned aircraft includes a lift and propulsion system and a flight control system having a flight control unit, a navigation system and an actuator system. The flight control unit has an autopilot unit. The flight control unit calculates control commands using data from the navigation system and/or the autopilot unit, which can be conveyed to the actuator system for actuating the lift and propulsion system. A collision warning system is connected with the flight control system, the collision warning system detects a collision situation and makes collision avoidance data available. A connection between the collision warning system and the autopilot unit is provided, in order to initiate an obstacle avoidance maneuver by the autopilot unit with the help of the collision avoidance data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: EADS Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Joerg Meyer, Matthis Goettken, Christoph Vernaleken, Simon Schaerer
  • Patent number: 9030351
    Abstract: A land-based Smart-Sensor System and several system architectures for detection, tracking, and classification of people and vehicles automatically and in real time for border, property, and facility security surveillance is described. The preferred embodiment of the proposed Smart-Sensor System is comprised of (1) a low-cost, non-coherent radar, whose function is to detect and track people, singly or in groups, and various means of transportation, which may include vehicles, animals, or aircraft, singly or in groups, and cue (2) an optical sensor such as a long-wave infrared (LWIR) sensor, whose function is to classify the identified targets and produce movie clips for operator validation and use, and (3) an IBM CELL supercomputer to process the collected data in real-time. The Smart Sensor System can be implemented in a tower-based or a mobile-based, or combination system architecture. The radar can also be operated as a stand-alone system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Vista Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Phillip A. Fox, Joseph W. Maresca, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9024811
    Abstract: A processing device for providing radar data onto a local area network includes an analog-to-digital converter operable to receive analog radar data from an antenna and converter operable to convert the analog radar data into digital radar data. An interference rejector removes radar signals of other antennas from the digital radar data. A range bin decimator limits the digital radar data to a threshold number of range bins. A trigger-to-azimuth converter associates the digital radar data to particular azimuths of rotation of the antenna. A local area network manager places the digital radar data onto a local area network. The processing device may be located in the pedestal with the antenna. A plurality of processing devices associated with a plurality of antennas may provide digital radar data onto the local area network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignees: Raytheon Anschutz GmbH, Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Carsten Reiter, Steffen Kröger, Meinhard Wohlgemuth, Thomas Edward Wood
  • Patent number: 9019145
    Abstract: A weather radar system is coupled to a weather radar antenna. The weather radar system includes a processor for combining or summing portions of the radar return data to obtain a null. The processor associates the null with the ground (e.g., steers the null toward ground or processes data so that the null corresponds to ground) to obtain a null to alleviate ground clutter when sensing weather. The null can be a single null or multiple nulls associated with different ranges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Venkata A. Sishtla, Daniel L. Woodell, Mark C. Fersdahl
  • Publication number: 20150109165
    Abstract: An adaptive parameter for adjusting a threshold in a sensor system that provides a constant false alarm rate is disclosed. A projection space generator performs projection operations to create a matched projection space and first and second mismatched projection spaces such that each mismatched projection space is orthogonal or nearly orthogonal to the matched projection space. A mitigator engine receives the matched and first mismatched projection spaces and generates a covariance matrix from the first mismatched projection space and an image space from the covariance matrix and the matched projection space. A second mismatched projection space that is mismatched to both the matched and first mismatched projection spaces is provided to a clutter characterization engine that generates samples from the second mismatched projection space and the covariance matrix. The adaptive parameter is generated from the samples and is used as an input to a threshold adjuster in a target detector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2014
    Publication date: April 23, 2015
    Inventor: Ernest Jefferson Holder
  • Patent number: 9007254
    Abstract: The present invention provides, among other things, antenna beam control devices, systems, architectures, and methods for radar and other applications, such as wireless communications, etc., to improve transmit and/or receive performance of the devices and systems employing such antennas by deploying beam control elements (20) to increase antenna gain at an angle less than a first angle relative to the antenna gain at angle greater than a first angle. Beam control elements are deployed in combination with the one or more antennas (12) in various systems of the present invention, such that the impact of reflected radiation from wind mill, communication, or other towers supporting the system or other nearby structures, as well as radiation from nearby wireless communication networks is decreased to an acceptable level. The beam control elements can include absorbing and reflective material and can be placed in the antenna near field to minimize costs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems, A/S
    Inventors: Knut Vangen, Jan Pleym
  • Patent number: 8994585
    Abstract: A method is provided. A first edge on a first gating signal is generated, and a local oscillator and a shared clocking circuit with the first edge on the first gating signal. A second edge on a second gating signal is generated following the first edge on the first gating signal, and a receiver circuit is activated with the second edge on the second gating signal, where the receiver circuit includes a mixer. A transmit pulse following the first edge on the first gating signal is generated with the transmit pulse having a third edge. A switch that short circuits outputs of the mixer is then released following the later of the third edge of the transmit pulse and a delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Brian P. Ginsburg, Srinath M. Ramaswamy, Vijay B. Rentala, Eunyoung Seok, Baher S. Haroun
  • Patent number: 8988279
    Abstract: A method for reducing sidelobe interference in a radar or communication system. The method includes selecting a desired amplitude weight (WD) to be applied to radar or communication antenna elements and determining phase weights for the radar or communication system elements such that each pair of adjacent, phase weighted elements provides the desired amplitude weight when summed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Raymond A. Roberge
  • Patent number: 8976059
    Abstract: In one aspect, a method to identify and remove a false detection includes receiving a detection from a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) processor, performing a first similarity measure on adjacent coherent integration time values (CITs) corresponding to the detection, performing a second similarity measure on neighbor CITs corresponding to the detection, determining if at least one of the first or second similarity measure is below a threshold and discarding the detection if at least one of the first or second similarity measures is below the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Raytheon Canada Limited
    Inventors: Reza M. Dizaji, Anthony M. Ponsford, Richard McKerracher, Emily Wang
  • Patent number: 8976055
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for operating an electrical device which during operation emits electromagnetic radiation at least temporarily, and to a method for operating a locating device for identifying objects. The method for operating an electrical device is characterized in that the presence of an external radiation source or radio communication service is detected. The invention also relates to an electrical device, especially a locating device comprising at least one UWB sensor, which device is operated according to the method of the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Reiner Krapf, Heiko Braun, Michael Mahler, Christoph Wuersch, Wilfried Kaneider, Hartmut Dunger
  • Patent number: 8970426
    Abstract: A system for suppressing clutter in a radar system is provided. The system includes an antenna configured to receive radar signals containing clutter and a digital receiver adapted to convert the radar signals received by the radar arrays to complex I/Q samples. These I/Q samples are provided to a Doppler filter bank comprising a plurality of Doppler filters for filtering the pulse compressed data into Doppler bins representative of range values according to Doppler frequency. The system further includes at least one processor for comparing the output of each of the plurality of Doppler filters types to respective background clutter maps, and identifying the Doppler filter which outputs the radar return signal with the greatest magnitude over the clutter map. Once identified, target detection operations may be performed on the output of the identified Doppler filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Cproration
    Inventors: Peter H. Stockmann, David M. Mittiga
  • Patent number: 8970429
    Abstract: Aspects of the present invention relate to a system (10) and a method for tracking one or more targets by a radar using a multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) algorithm, the method including operating the radar to transmit a radar beam from a first location toward the one or more targets, operating the radar to receive a plurality of return signals at the first location from the one or more targets, and to generate a plurality of observations for a single radar dwell respectively corresponding to the plurality of return signals, and processing the plurality of observations in accordance with the MHT algorithm for at least two passes such that more than one of the plurality of observations are associated with a single track of the one or more targets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Catherine Pickle, Samuel S. Blackman, Douglas B. Tyler
  • Patent number: 8952844
    Abstract: A method for adaptively matching the frequency response of two channels of a received signal includes the steps of receiving a main RF signal on a main antenna, sampling the main RF signal at a sample rate, delaying the sampled main RF signal by a multiple of a sample period, wherein the sample period is the inverse of the sample rate, receiving at least one other RF signal on at least one other auxiliary antenna, sampling each of the at least one other RF signal at the sample rate, filtering each of the at least one other sampled RF signal utilizing an adaptive finite impulse response (FIR) filter having at least one sub-sample-period time delay, and combining the sampled main RF signal with each of the filtered at least one other sampled RF signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventor: Richard Wasiewicz
  • Patent number: 8947294
    Abstract: A system and method of providing to a beamformer a modified complex beam steering vector includes collecting subarray I/Q samples from a plurality of subarrays receiving clutter, performing coherent integration of the subarray I/Q samples to increase the CNR, adaptively modifying a complex beam steering vector to form a null in the direction of the received clutter, and outputting to a beamformer the modified complex beam steering vector. The beamformer receives complex I/Q data samples representing a radar signal containing near-horizon clutter and applies the modified beam steering vector to generate a beamformed signal having an elevated mainlobe and a spatial sidelobe null in the direction of the received clutter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2015
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Wasiewicz, Peter H. Stockmann
  • Patent number: 8928523
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and a radar apparatus for transmitting a transmission signal at a controlled timing in order to avoid signal interference, thereby exactly detecting a target object without misrecognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Mando Corporation
    Inventors: Jae Eun Lee, Seong Hee Jeong, Joo Yeol Yang, Seung Un Choi
  • Patent number: 8928524
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the field of pulse compression in signal processing, and more particularly, to systems and methods for the synthesis of waveforms for suppressing sidelobes and sidebands using a combination of time and spectral control. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a set of waveform symbols which can be used to maximize use of disaggregated grey-space spectrum, adapt to changing spectral condition, and maintain or enhance data rates relative to standard binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) under normal conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Technology Service Corporation
    Inventors: Carroll J. Nunn, Menachem Levitas
  • Patent number: 8917204
    Abstract: An integrated circuit for cancelling a radio frequency transmit leakage signal comprises: a transmitter portion comprising at least one amplifier stage for transmitting a radio frequency signal to an antenna port; and a first coupler arranged to operably couple the transmitter portion, the antenna port and a receiver portion. The receiver portion is arranged to receive a first composite signal that comprises a received radio frequency signal from the antenna port and the transmit leakage signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: Saverio Trotta, Bernhard Dehlink, Ralf Reuter
  • Patent number: 8917201
    Abstract: Systems and methods for receiving ADS-B messages in environments where multipath propagation corrupts the messages or blocks the reception of the messages. An exemplary system combines RF signal processing and digital signal processing techniques to make it possible to receive ADS-B messages in the presence of multipath reflections from nearby structures and/or farther out structures. The system uses an array of horizontally spaced antennas. The RF signals from the antennas are combined by the receiver so as to form a set of beams with different azimuth antenna patterns to increase the probability that the multipath does not combine destructively with the line-of-sight path in at least one of the beams. This effectively removes multipath reflections where the delay of the multipath relative to the line-of-sight path is less than 100-200 nanoseconds. The system is also configured to remove multipath reflections with greater delays relative to the line-of-sight path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventor: Alfonso Malaga
  • Patent number: 8912950
    Abstract: This invention relates to sense through the wall radar. A main channel of a radar system (12) is operated at a frequency capable of penetrating opaque barriers such as the wall (24) of a building (22) to sense targets (16) therein. The main channel performance may be impaired by multipath interference, i.e., radar returns resulting from targets (20) outside the building (22) illuminated by reflection from the wall (24). A guard channel of the radar, operating at a higher frequency which does not penetrate the wall (24), is used to identify targets (20) outside the building (22) and suppress the multipath interference they produce in the main channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Scott E. Adcook
  • Patent number: 8912951
    Abstract: A system and method for discrimination and identification of a target including: receiving a radar return signal including target information and clutter information; determining a two-fold forward or forward-backward data matrix from the received signal, using a multi-dimensional folding (MDF) process; computing singular values of the two-fold forward or forward-backward data matrix; using the computed singular values to determine a noise power level of the radar return signal; determining the number of scatterers in the radar return signal according to a predetermined threshold value above the noise power; estimating complex Doppler and azimuth frequencies of each scatterer from the determined number of scatterers using the MDF process; determining dispersive scatterers and non-dispersive scatterers using the estimated Doppler and azimuth complex frequencies of each scatterer; and distinguishing the target information from the clutter information, according to the determined dispersive scatterers and non-di
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Timothy Campbell, Theagenis J. Abatzoglou
  • Patent number: 8907842
    Abstract: A radar system includes a receiver that is capable of attenuating transmitter feedthrough in a receive signal. In some embodiments, a fixed frequency notch filter is used to attenuate feedthrough at an intermediate frequency (IF). In other embodiments, an electronically tunable notch filter is used. Phase compensation may be provided to correct for a phase shift of the notch filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Bianchini, Terry J. Kirn, David D. Coffin
  • Patent number: 8907841
    Abstract: A method for detecting a target in a non-homogeneous environment using a space-time adaptive processing of a radar signal includes normalizing training data of the non-homogeneous environment to produce normalized training data; determining a normalized sample covariance matrix representing the normalized training data; tracking a subspace represented by the normalized sample covariance matrix to produce a clutter subspace matrix; determining a test statistic representing a likelihood of a presence of the target in the radar signal based on the clutter subspace matrix and a steering vector; and comparing the test statistic with a threshold to detect the target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Zafer Sahinoglu, Man-On Pun, Pu Wang
  • Patent number: 8902098
    Abstract: A process is disclosed for minimising jammer noise in receiver systems. The process comprises the use of a primary receiver (10) and a plurality of secondary receivers (11) for receiving signals. The process comprises the steps of:—separately correlating the signal received at each of the plurality of 5 secondary receivers with the signal received at the primary receiver;—determining the magnitude of the correlation between signals received at each of the plurality of secondary receivers with the signal received at the primary receiver; and,—minimising the signal received at the primary receiver using those signals received at the secondary receivers for which the magnitude of the correlation with the signal received at the primary receiver is above a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: BAE Systems PLC
    Inventor: Peter Alan Langsford
  • Patent number: 8896479
    Abstract: A Global Positioning System (GPS) signal reception apparatus including a GPS antenna unit, a GPS signal selection unit, and a jamming signal detection unit is provided. The GPS antenna unit includes a first-type antenna and a plurality of second-type antennas which have directivities different from each other. The GPS signal selection unit selects any one of the first-type antenna and the plurality of second-type antennas as a selected antenna. The jamming signal detection unit detects a jamming signal present in a GPS signal by analyzing the GPS signal which is received via the selected antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Jin-Chun Wang, Dong-Hoon Shin, Ui-Jung Kim, Dae-Heon Lee, Hae-Yong Yang, Seong-Taek Chee
  • Patent number: 8884810
    Abstract: A system and method for a single site beacon transceiver including an omni-directional transceiver, a plurality of directional receiving antennas for receiving a signal, and a digital receiver for processing the signal to determine an azimuth to the source of the received signal. The digital receiver includes a plurality of receiver channels that are calibrated periodically and at least one processor that estimates a coarse signal azimuth for the signal by calculating an amplitude monopulse ratio for the signal using the two directional receiving antennas receiving the highest amplitude signal, and estimates a final signal azimuth for the signal using an interferometer baseline between the two directional receiving antennas or, alternately, subtracts the complex ratio of the measurements from the complex ratio of the antenna array RF model to determine the angle corresponding to the minimum of the absolute value of the difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Saab Sensis Corporation
    Inventor: Elyahu Perl
  • Patent number: 8884811
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for separating transmitted signals in radar systems and an associated radar system. In the method, the signals for transmission are shared among multiple subcarriers by means of OFDM, which subcarriers are assigned to the transmitting antennas according to a distribution scheme. In this distribution scheme, each subcarrier is assigned to one transmitting antennas only. The subcarriers assigned to a given transmitting antenna are spread over the entire signal bandwidth. In this way, very high dynamics may be achieved while retaining complete orthogonality of the signal paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie
    Inventors: Thomas Zwick, Christian Sturm
  • Patent number: 8874390
    Abstract: An instrument (100) is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The instrument (100) includes an interface (101) configured to receive a Doppler measurement signal and a processing system (112) coupled to the interface (101) and receiving the Doppler measurement signal. The processing system (112) is configured to generate a two-sided velocity spectrum including a plurality of discrete frequency bins from the Doppler measurement signal, with the two-sided velocity spectrum distinguishing spectral elements, and process one or more velocity spectrum bin pairs against a plurality of local gate thresholds, with the one or more velocity spectrum bin pairs being substantially symmetrically located about one or more carrier wave bins and wherein each velocity spectrum bin pair is processed against a corresponding local gate threshold of the plurality of local gate thresholds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Hach Company
    Inventor: David Langley Rick
  • Patent number: 8866668
    Abstract: In a radar apparatus, a peak extractor performs frequency analysis on a beat signal to obtain a frequency spectrum for each of first and second detection modes based on the beat signal for a corresponding one of the first and second detection modes. The peak extractor extracts a plurality of first peak-signal components from the frequency spectrum obtained for the first detection mode, and a plurality of second peak-signal components from the frequency spectrum obtained for the second detection mode. A determiner compares each of the plurality of first peak-signal components with a corresponding one of the plurality of second peak-signal components to deter mine whether a noise is included in the beat signal according to a result of the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventor: Hideki Kitagawa
  • Patent number: 8866666
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a signal processing device, which includes a reception signal acquiring module for acquiring reception signals received by a radar antenna, an identifying module for identifying a kind of each reception signal, an extracting module for extracting the reception signal for each kind, and a kind-base signal processing module for performing individual signal processing for each kind of the extracted reception signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Furuno Electric Company, Limited
    Inventor: Masahiro Nakahama
  • Patent number: 8860606
    Abstract: Radar sensor having a mixer for mixing a received signal with a reference signal and having a device for compensating interference signals which would overload the mixer, wherein the device for compensating the interference signals has an adjustable reflection point at the reference input of the mixer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Armin Himmelstoss, Michael Klar, Johann-Peter Forstner, Thomas Binzer, Thomas Walter, Klaus-Dieter Miosga, Oliver Brueggemann, Alexander Fischer, Dirk Steinbuch, Herbert Jaeger, Erich Kolmhofer, Juergen Seiz, Elisabeth Hauk, Rahel Hauk, Manuel Hauk
  • Patent number: 8854249
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting the presence of subsurface objects within a medium is provided. In some embodiments, the imaging and detection system operates in a multistatic mode to collect radar return signals generated by an array of transceiver antenna pairs that is positioned across the surface and that travels down the surface. The imaging and detection system pre-processes the return signal to suppress certain undesirable effects. The imaging and detection system then generates synthetic aperture radar images from real aperture radar images generated from the pre-processed return signal. The imaging and detection system then post-processes the synthetic aperture radar images to improve detection of subsurface objects. The imaging and detection system identifies peaks in the energy levels of the post-processed image frame, which indicates the presence of a subsurface object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
    Inventors: David W. Paglieroni, N. Reginald Beer
  • Patent number: 8854248
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting the presence of subsurface objects within a medium is provided. In some embodiments, the imaging and detection system operates in a multistatic mode to collect radar return signals generated by an array of transceiver antenna pairs that is positioned across the surface and that travels down the surface. The imaging and detection system pre-processes the return signal to suppress certain undesirable effects. The imaging and detection system then generates synthetic aperture radar images from real aperture radar images generated from the pre-processed return signal. The imaging and detection system then post-processes the synthetic aperture radar images to improve detection of subsurface objects. The imaging and detection system identifies peaks in the energy levels of the post-processed image frame, which indicates the presence of a subsurface object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
    Inventors: David W. Paglieroni, N. Reginald Beer, Steven W. Bond, Philip L. Top, David H. Chambers, Jeffrey E. Mast, John G. Donetti, Blake C. Mason, Steven M. Jones