Ultrawideband asynchronous tracking system and method

US8116350B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration · US

Inventors

• G. Dickey Arndt · Friendswood, US
• Phong H. Ngo · Friendswood, US
• Chau T. Phan · Houston, US
• Julia Gross · Houston, US
• Jianjun Ni · Shanghai, CN
• John Dusl · Houston, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 14, 2009
• Grant date: Feb 14, 2012
• Expiry date: Jul 22, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01S5/12
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A passive tracking system is provided with a plurality of ultrawideband (UWB) receivers that is asynchronous with respect to a UWB transmitter. A geometry of the tracking system may utilize a plurality of clusters with each cluster comprising a plurality of antennas. Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) may be determined for the antennas in each cluster and utilized to determine Angle of Arrival (AOA) based on a far field assumption regarding the geometry. Parallel software communication sockets may be established with each of the plurality of UWB receivers. Transfer of waveform data may be processed by alternately receiving packets of waveform data from each UWB receiver. Cross Correlation Peak Detection (CCPD) is utilized to estimate TDOA information to reduce errors in a noisy, multipath environment.