Terrain following radar with smart scan
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsStephen Reed Porter, Vaishal Shah, Todd Lovell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) radar that receives terrain information and known obstacle information from a plurality of databases; receives radar data from the TF/TA radar; fuses the terrain information and known obstacle information with the radar data; adds unknown obstacle information to the fused data to generate scanning schedule information; and utilizes the scanning schedule information to schedule a next radar scan by the TF/TA radar.
Claims20
A method for smart scanning by a Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) radar, the method comprising:
- receiving terrain information and known obstacle information from a plurality of databases;
- receiving radar data from the TF/TA radar;
- fusing the terrain information and known obstacle information with the radar data to generate fused data;
- adding unknown obstacle information with associated uncertainty information determined as a function of range and elevation to the fused data to generate scanning points information;
- utilizing the scanning points information to select each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information to schedule a next radar scan by the TF/TA radar with a scan threshold for the uncertainty information;
- and
- based on the next radar scan by the TF/TA radar, generating a command to clear each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information.
A Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) radar comprising:
- a receiver configured to receive terrain information and known obstacle information from a plurality of databases and to receive radar data for the TF/TA radar;
- a processor configured to:
- fuse the terrain information and known obstacle information with the radar data to generate fused data;
- and
- add unknown obstacle information with associated uncertainty information determined as a function of range and elevation to the fused data to generate scanning schedule points information;
- and
- a scan controller configured to utilize the scanning points information to select each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information to schedule a next radar scan by the TF/TA radar with a scan threshold for the uncertainty information;
- wherein the processor is further configured to generate, based on the next radar scan, a command to clear each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information.
A Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance (TF/TA) radar comprising:
- means for receiving terrain information and known obstacle information from a plurality of databases;
- means for receiving radar data from the TF/TA radar;
- means for fusing the terrain information and known obstacle information with the radar data to generate fused data;
- means for adding unknown obstacle information with associated uncertainty information determined as a function of range and elevation to the fused data to generate scanning points information;
- means for utilizing the scanning points information to select each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information to schedule a next radar scan by the TF/TA radar with a scan threshold for the uncertainty information;
- and
- means for generating, based on the next radar scan by the TF/TA radar, a command to clear each point from the fused data with unknown obstacle information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.