System to determine the location of a radio frequency source using radio frequency signal strength and related methods

US12270927B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Vorbeck Materials Corp. · US

Inventors

• James Turney · Silver Spring, US
• Jaclyn Scott · Jessup, US
• Dan Scheffer · Frederick, US
• Sriram Manivannan · Baltimore, US
• John S. Lettow · Washington, US
• JOSIAH HENRY · Linthicum, US
• Kenneth E Fritsch · Arnold, US
• Michael Filipelli · Burtner, US
• Victor Contreras · Baltimore, US
• Samarpita Chowdhury · Jessup, US
• Trentice V Bolar · Washington, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 22, 2022
• Grant date: Apr 8, 2025
• Expiry date: Jul 23, 2043

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01S5/0009
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Embodiments relate to a RF localization system that determines the position of a RF source of interest (RFSOI) relative to the RFLS. The RFLS includes man-portable nodes that communicate via a self-organizing WAN. Each node includes a communications device conductively coupled to antenna elements oriented in each nodal cardinal direction and battery each communicatively coupled to a control circuit(s). The control circuit is configured to: establish the WAN; capture RSSI values for each antenna element; determine the position of the RFSOI relative to the node; when not functioning as a primary node, transmit the determined position to a primary node or a computing device that's external to the WAN for processing; and when functioning as a primary node, determine the relative position of the RFSOI relative to the plurality of nodes using the received determined position. The primary node determines the position of the RFSOI relative to the nodes.