A method for estimating a speed of a radar target using a radar sensor, in particular a radar sensor for motor vehicles, on the basis of signals that are contained in respective evaluation channels that correspond to different center antenna positions of relevant transmitting and receiving antennas in a direction, having the steps: determining, for the various evaluation channels, a respective individual radial speed assigned to the respective evaluation channel, of the radar target; and estimating a speed of the radar target based on the determined individual radial speeds of the radar target, the speed including information about a tangential speed; and a radar sensor for carrying out the method.

A method for a radar sensor, in particular a radar sensor for motor vehicles. The method includes the steps: determining, for particular evaluation channels that correspond to different central antenna positions of relevant transmitting antennas and receiving antennas in one direction, and for particular individual radar targets, a respective individual radial velocity of the particular radar target associated with the particular evaluation channel, based on signals obtained in respective evaluation channels; estimating a particular velocity of the particular radar target based on the determined individual radial velocities of the radar target, the velocity including information concerning a velocity in the forward direction in relation to the radar sensor, and a tangential velocity; and associating radar targets as belonging to an extended radar object as a function of the estimated velocities of the radar targets. A radar sensor is also described.

A device and a method for determining the position of an object, in particular of a moving object, in a three dimensional space is made available. Here the device comprises at least two switchable transmitting antenna arrays having different vertical beam alignments and a number of receiving antennas arranged in a row. The transmitting antennas are arranged spaced apart by a distance that corresponds to the distance between the outer phase centers of the receiving antennas. Otherwise the transmitting antennas can be positioned arbitrarily around the receiving antenna. The horizontal beam sweep over a wide angle range is implemented by the digital beam forming method. The vertical object position is measured by comparing the amplitude of the received signals with sequentially operated transmitting antennas having different vertical beam directions.

The present system and method allow for accurate estimation of angle and angle rate for a target using a slewing antenna. These issues are accounted for by using a special form of non-coherent integration. An extension of the non-coherent integration may be used to estimate the target's angle rates. This technique can also be expanded to determine whether a target is in the main lobe or in a side lobe in one or two directions.

A navigation system for a swarm of guided projectiles, such as cruise missiles, having three or more projectiles launched at a target is provided. The projectiles can be in secure communication with one another and can operate as a single swarm using a fusion of angle of arrival and time difference of arrival of a detected signal to direct the projectiles to a point of impact on a target that is offset from an emitter generating the detected signal. The projectiles can further use knowledge of their relative position to maintain and/or adjust their flight path and/or speed to maintain their course to the point of impact in areas of GPS denial or unavailability.

A navigation system for a swarm of guided projectiles, such as cruise missiles, having three or more projectiles launched at a target is provided. The projectiles can be in secure communication with one another and can operate as a single swarm using a fusion of angle of arrival and time difference of arrival of a detected signal to direct the projectiles to a point of impact on a target that is offset from an emitter generating the detected signal. The projectiles can further use knowledge of their relative position to maintain and/or adjust their flight path and/or speed to maintain their course to the point of impact in areas of GPS denial or unavailability.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for determining the position of objects in two-dimensional space having a first dimension and a second dimension, the direction vector of which is orthogonal to the direction vector of the first dimension, containing at least one transmitter (I) having at least one transmitting antenna (3) and an imaging receiver circuit (2) having at least one receiving antenna array (Rx Array) with rows (6) of receiving antennas for scanning the first dimension by means of digital beam shaping, wherein the receiving antenna array has a linear array, a sparse array or an array with an enlarged aperture, and wherein the rows (6) of receiving antennas in the receiving antenna array of the receiver circuit (2) are linearly arranged in the first dimension according to a curve function or according to the contour of a two-dimensional geometric object and are spread out in the second dimension, and to a method using the apparatus.

The method includes a step of forming, with a radar, a number N of beams of equal angular width that irradiate a runway and a portion of the surroundings of the runway; a step of dividing the zone irradiated by the beams into distance-angle boxes, the beams delineating the boxes anglewise; a step of taking measurements of backscattered power received from distance-angle boxes, the measurements being carried out for a set of pairs of boxes, a pair being composed of two boxes of same distance one of which, called the right box, crosses the right edge (3D) of the runway, and the other of which, called the left box, crosses the left edge (3G); a step of computing, for each pair, the difference in backscattered power between the right box and the left box, the aircraft being aligned with the axis when the difference is zero for at least two pairs of distance-angle boxes.

Apparatus and methods are presented for characterising the environment of a user platform. In certain embodiments RF signals are transmitted and received through an antenna array having a plurality of elements activated in a predetermined sequence, and received signals are manipulated with round-trip path corrections to enhance the gain of the array in one or more directions. Objects in those directions are detected from the receipt of returns of transmitted signals, and the manipulated received signals processed to estimate range to those objects. In other embodiments RF signals transmitted by one or more external transmitters are received and manipulated to enhance the gain of a local antenna array or antenna arrays associated with the one or more transmitters to enhance the gain of the arrays in one or more directions. Objects in those directions are detected from the receipt of reflected signals from the transmitters, and the manipulated received signals processed to estimate range to those objects.

A mainlobe detection process can include a number of tests that are performed to define when the monopulse antenna system will transition from open loop scanning to closed loop scanning and then to tracking. A hybrid tracking technique is also provided which adaptively discovers and corrects for phase alignment error. Magnitude-only tracking can be performed initially to locate the nulls in the azimuth and elevation ratios and to identify the magnitudes of these ratios at these nulls. Phase tracking can be then performed. During phase tracking, phase corrections can be repeatedly applied to the azimuth and elevation difference channels to correct any phase error that may exist. During this process, the magnitudes of the ratios can be used to determine how the phase corrections should be adjusted. Once the hybrid tracking process is complete, the monopulse antenna system is properly phase-aligned and phase tracking will be correctly employed.