Beacon-based approach guidance system
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorTimothy Allen Murphy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beacon-based approach guidance system is disclosed. A disclosed method includes digitizing at least one signal received at an antenna array of a receiver of a vehicle to digitized data streams of I and Q samples, the at least one signal received from a beacon, the at least one signal modulated with a pseudorandom code at the beacon, correlating the I and Q samples to a locally generated pseudorandom code of the receiver to recover carrier signals, and calculating, based on relative phase characteristics of the recovered carrier signals, a direction of arrival of the at least one signal from the beacon in a vehicle reference frame.
Claims25
A method comprising:
- digitizing at least one signal received at an antenna array of a receiver of a vehicle to digitized data streams of I and Q samples, the at least one signal received from a beacon, the at least one signal modulated with a pseudorandom code at the beacon;
- correlating the I and Q samples to a locally generated pseudorandom code of the receiver to recover carrier signals;
- and
- calculating, based on relative phase characteristics of the recovered carrier signals, a direction of arrival of the at least one signal from the beacon in a vehicle reference frame.
An apparatus for guidance of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
- interface circuitry communicatively coupled to an antenna array of the vehicle, the antenna array including respective antennas to receive a signal transmitted from a beacon, the transmitted signal modulated with a pseudorandom code at the beacon;
- machine-readable instructions;
- and
- at least one processor circuit to be programmed by the machine-readable instructions to:
- down convert and digitize signals received at the antenna array to baseband I and Q samples;
- correlate the I and Q samples to a locally generated pseudorandom code to align the received signals in time;
- recover carrier signals by modulating the received signals with a synchronized pseudorandom noise (PRN) code to despread the received signals;
- and
- calculate, based on relative phase characteristics of the recovered carrier signals, a heading and an elevation of a direction of arrival of the signal transmitted from the beacon in a vehicle reference frame.
A receiver for guidance of a vehicle, the receiver comprising:
- an array of antennas to receive a signal transmitted from a beacon, the transmitted signal modulated with a pseudorandom code at the beacon;
- a digitizer to digitize signals received at the antennas into digitized signals with I and Q samples, the digitized signals modulated with a locally generated pseudorandom code;
- and
- a software-defined radio to:
- correlate the I and Q samples to a locally generated pseudorandom code for recovery of carrier signals from the digitized signals;
- and
- calculate, based on relative phase characteristics of the recovered carrier signals, a direction of arrival of the signal from the beacon in a vehicle reference frame.
A non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause at least one processor circuit to at least:
- digitize signals received at an antenna array of a receiver of a vehicle to data streams of I and Q samples, the signals received corresponding to a transmitted signal from a beacon, the transmitted signal modulated with a pseudorandom code at the beacon;
- correlate the I and Q samples to a locally generated pseudorandom code of the receiver to align the received signals in time;
- recover carrier signals by modulating the signals with a synchronized pseudorandom noise (PRN) code to despread the received signals;
- and
- calculate, based on relative phase characteristics of the recovered carrier signals, a heading and an elevation of a direction of arrival of the vehicle with respect to the beacon in a vehicle reference frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.