# US 10,480,932 B2 · Automated computation of a dimension of a moving platform > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,480,932 B2 - Document ID: US10480932B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/487,938 - Filed: 2017-04-14 - Published: 2017-10-19 - Granted: 2019-11-19 - Earliest claimed: 2016-04-19 - Assignees: Thales - Applicants: Thales - Inventors: Gilles Guerrini; Vincent Corretja; Richard Montigny - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10480932B2 ## CPC - G01B 11/026: {by measuring distance between sensor and object (G01B11/0608 takes precedence)} - G01B 11/04: specially adapted for measuring length or width of objects while moving - G01S 7/411: {Identification of targets based on measurements of radar reflectivity (G01S7/415 takes precedence)} - G01S 13/08: Systems for measuring distance only (indirect measurement G01S13/46) - G01S 13/917: {for marine craft or other waterborne vessels} - G08G 3/00: Traffic control systems for marine craft (marking of navigational route B63B22/16, B63B51/00) - G01B: MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEAR DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS - G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES - G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93}) ## Abstract Disclosed is a method and a system for the automated computation of a length or width dimension of a moving platform. The method includes sending radio waves toward the platform along a predetermined transmission axis and acquiring at least one digital power profile signal representative of a received reflected signal power as a function of a radial distance along the transmission axis relative to a reference point. This method next includes applying a filtering operator on the acquired digital power profile signal, making it possible to obtain a filtered digital signal, determining, by computation, a first radial distance corresponding to a first variation peak of the filtered digital signal and a second radial distance corresponding to a second variation peak of the filtered digital signal, and the computing a radial dimension of the platform as a function of the first and second radial distances. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of automatically computing a radial dimension of a moving ship, said radial dimension being a length dimension or a width dimension of the ship, the method comprising: sending, by a radar system, electromagnetic radio waves toward said ship along a predetermined transmission axis, acquiring at least one digital power profile signal representative of a received reflected signal power as a function of a radial distance along said transmission axis relative to a reference point of said radar system, filtering the acquired digital power profile signal by a filtering operator to obtain a filtered digital signal, the obtained filtered digital signal being recorded in a memory unit, determining, by computation by a processor, a first radial distance corresponding to a first variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal and a second radial distance corresponding to a second variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal, and computing, by the processor, the radial dimension of the ship as a function of said first and second radial distances. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, further comprising: acquiring a plurality of the at least one digital power profile signal, and for each acquired digital power profile signal, filtering by a filtering operator and determining a corresponding first radial distance and a corresponding second radial distance. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein the computation of the radial dimension of the ship comprises computing an estimated radial length value for each acquired digital power profile signal by obtaining a difference between the second radial distance and the first radial distance, and storing the estimated radial length value for each acquired digital power profile signal. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method according to claim 3, further comprising computing a final estimated radial length from stored estimated radial length values. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method according to claim 4, wherein the final estimated radial length is equal to the median of the stored estimated radial length values. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) The method according to claim 4, further comprising statistically validating the stored estimated radial length values, and assigning a confidence score associated with the final estimated radial length. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method according to claim 6, wherein the statistical validation comprises computing a histogram of the estimated radial length values, and computing at least one dispersion parameter associated with said histogram. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein the first radial distance is a smallest radial distance corresponding to a variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal, and the second radial distance is a largest radial distance corresponding to a variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by computation, a first radial distance corresponding to a first variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal and a second radial distance corresponding to a second variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal comprises a computation, done by applying a sliding window, of a partial discrete integral value of the filtered digital signal comprised in said sliding window and a comparison of the partial integral value to a predetermined variation threshold. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method according to claim 9, wherein the predetermined variation threshold is computed as a function of the total discrete interval of the filtered digital signal. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, further comprising computing a length dimension or a width dimension as a function of the computed radial dimension and estimating the correlation between the computed length or width dimension and an anticipated length or width dimension, and raising an alert as a function of the result of the correlation estimation. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) A computer program including software instructions which, when executed by a programmable device, carry out the method for the automatic computation of a dimension of a moving ship, said dimension being a length dimension or a width dimension, according to claim 1. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) An information recording medium having recorded software instructions for implementing the method according to claim 1, when those software instructions are executed by a programmable device. ### Claim 14 A system for automatically computing a radial dimension of a moving ship, said radial dimension being a length dimension or a width dimension of the ship, the system comprising: an antenna that sends electromagnetic radio waves toward the ship along a predetermined transmission axis; and a module that acquires at least one digital power profile signal representative of a received reflected signal power as a function of a radial distance along said transmission axis relative to a reference point of the antenna, a computing and processing unit that comprises a processor and at least one memory unit that stores data and program code instructions, implementing: a filtering module for applying a filtering operator on the acquired digital power profile signal to obtain a filtered digital signal and recording the filtered digital signal on one of the at least one memory unit, a determining module for determining, by computation, a first radial distance corresponding to a first variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal and a second radial distance corresponding to a second variation peak of the recorded filtered digital signal, a computing module for computing the radial dimension of the ship as a function of said first and second radial distances.