A system for virtual aperture array radar tracking includes a transmitter that transmits first and second probe signals; a receiver array including a first plurality of radar elements positioned along a first radar axis; and a signal processor that calculates a target range from first and second reflected probe signals, corresponds signal instances of the first reflected probe signal to physical receiver elements of the radar array, corresponds signal instances of the second reflected probe signal to virtual elements of the radar array, calculates a first target angle between a first reference vector and a first projected target vector from the first reflected probe signal, and calculates a position of the tracking target relative to the radar array from the target range and first target angle.

A system for virtual aperture array radar tracking includes a transmitter that transmits first and second probe signals; a receiver array including a first plurality of radar elements positioned along a first radar axis; and a signal processor that calculates a target range from first and second reflected probe signals, corresponds signal instances of the first reflected probe signal to physical receiver elements of the radar array, corresponds signal instances of the second reflected probe signal to virtual elements of the radar array, calculates a first target angle between a first reference vector and a first projected target vector from the first reflected probe signal, and calculates a position of the tracking target relative to the radar array from the target range and first target angle.

Automotive radar systems may employ a reconfigurable connection of antennas to radar transmitters and/or receivers. An illustrative embodiment of an automotive radar system includes: a radar transmitter; a radar receiver; and a digital signal processor coupled to the radar receiver to detect reflections of a signal transmitted by the radar transmitter and to derive signal measurements therefrom. At least one of the radar transmitter and the radar receiver are switchable to provide the digital signal processor with signals from each of multiple combinations of transmit antenna and receive antenna.

Automotive radar systems may employ a reconfigurable connection of antennas to radar transmitters and/or receivers. An illustrative embodiment of an automotive radar system includes: a radar transmitter; a radar receiver; and a digital signal processor coupled to the radar receiver to detect reflections of a signal transmitted by the radar transmitter and to derive signal measurements therefrom. At least one of the radar transmitter and the radar receiver are switchable to provide the digital signal processor with signals from each of multiple combinations of transmit antenna and receive antenna.

A system for virtual aperture array radar tracking includes a transmitter that transmits first and second probe signals; a receiver array including a first plurality of radar elements positioned along a first radar axis; and a signal processor that calculates a target range from first and second reflected probe signals, corresponds signal instances of the first reflected probe signal to physical receiver elements of the radar array, corresponds signal instances of the second reflected probe signal to virtual elements of the radar array, calculates a first target angle between a first reference vector and a first projected target vector from the first reflected probe signal, and calculates a position of the tracking target relative to the radar array from the target range and first target angle.

A system for virtual aperture array radar tracking includes a transmitter that transmits first and second probe signals; a receiver array including a first plurality of radar elements positioned along a first radar axis; and a signal processor that calculates a target range from first and second reflected probe signals, corresponds signal instances of the first reflected probe signal to physical receiver elements of the radar array, corresponds signal instances of the second reflected probe signal to virtual elements of the radar array, calculates a first target angle between a first reference vector and a first projected target vector from the first reflected probe signal, and calculates a position of the tracking target relative to the radar array from the target range and first target angle.

A method for coherent stereo radar tracking includes, at a stereo radar system, transmitting a probe signal, receiving a reflected probe signal in response to reflection of the probe signal by a tracking target, calculating first and second target ranges from the reflected probe signal data, transforming the reflected probe signal data based on the first and second target ranges, and calculating a first target angle from the transformed reflected probe signal data.

Embodiments of the present invention include the different methods for data fusion from multi dissimilar sensors to reduce the noise of the tracking the 3D target in Cartesian coordinates. Accuracy of this invention is precise and more stable than the conventional methods that use geometric calculations of 2D radars to track 3D targets. The results of this invention are using the same 3D radars in the tracking system. These methods are not only implemented in existing tracking centers, but also handle the tradeoff between the data transmission capacity at the command center and the computational speed of system. This invention performs the sequential steps: determining the dynamical motion model of target, state prediction and measurement update. Wherein, the variation of steps is shown in the embodiment of this invention by the following different approaches: selective measurement; parallel filtering; state vector fusion; feedback state vector fusion; measurement fusion state vector fusion.

Embodiments of the present invention include the different methods for data fusion from multi dissimilar sensors to reduce the noise of the tracking the 3D target in Cartesian coordinates. Accuracy of this invention is precise and more stable than the conventional methods that use geometric calculations of 2D radars to track 3D targets. The results of this invention are using the same 3D radars in the tracking system. These methods are not only implemented in existing tracking centers, but also handle the tradeoff between the data transmission capacity at the command center and the computational speed of system. This invention performs the sequential steps: determining the dynamical motion model of target, state prediction and measurement update. Wherein, the variation of steps is shown in the embodiment of this invention by the following different approaches: selective measurement; parallel filtering; state vector fusion; feedback state vector fusion; measurement fusion state vector fusion.

A method for processing measurements obtained by an antenna system at a given time index t, includes within a first list of clusters, a cluster including temporal characteristics, spatial characteristics and signal characteristics, predicting, at the time index t, the spatial characteristics of each cluster contained in the first list of clusters as a function of the spatial characteristics of the cluster when lastly updated to form a second list of clusters; for each measurement: forming a third list of clusters included in the second list, each cluster including the previously predicted spatial characteristics and calculating a likelihood score between the measurement and each cluster of the third list of clusters, the likelihood score being calculated from two factors; selecting the maximum likelihood score; and comparing the maximum likelihood score with a predetermined threshold.