US 2015/0029053 A1 · One Way Time of Flight Distance Measurement

Abstract

Determination of distance and/or position relative to one or more points by transmission of a wideband signal by a first antenna, reception of the transmitted wideband signal by a second antenna and comparison of the time delay between the transmitted and received signals. The first and second antennas are connected to a timer/processor unit. One or more of the first or second antennas is movable to an unknown position to be measured, but maintains connection to the timer/processor through a fixed or known delay communication link. The timer/processor contains a time base for generating the transmitted signal and an offset timer for measuring the time delay of the received signal. The received signal may be processed to determine a start time or leading edge that may resolve RF cycle and modulation bandwidth ambiguities and may allow positive determination of distance much shorter than a wavelength at the operation center frequency.

Claims32

Dependent claims

A range monitoring system, the system comprising:

a first antenna configured to be located at a first location;
a second antenna configured to be located at a second location, the first antenna to be spaced from the second antenna;
and a transceiver, said transceiver coupled to said first antenna through a first communication link and said transceiver coupled to said second antenna through a second communication link;
said first communication link adapted for maintaining a known or fixed time delay in the presence of relative motion of said first location relative to said second location;
said transceiver configured for transmitting a transmitted wide band signal using said first antenna and receiving a received wide band signal responsive to said transmitted wide band signal using said second antenna, said transceiver configured to measure a first time difference between said transmitted wide band signal and said received wide band signal, said first time difference indicative of said range.

2 more elements

A method for range monitoring, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a first antenna at a first location;
providing a second antenna at a second location, the first antenna spaced from the second antenna;
providing a transmitter coupled to said first antenna through a first communication link;
providing a first receiver coupled to said second antenna through a second communication link;
said first receiver synchronized to said first transmitter;
transmitting a signal from the first antenna and receiving the signal through the second antenna to generate a received signal;
determining a reference time of flight of said signal for a known configuration of said first antenna and said second antenna;
determining a first time of flight of said signal for a an unknown configuration of said first antenna and said second antenna;
determining a first change in time of flight of said signal for said unknown configuration by comparing said first time of flight and said reference time of flight;
and
calculating a first change of range between the first antenna and the second antenna based on said first change of time of flight of said signal transmitted from the first antenna.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

One Way Time of Flight Distance Measurement

Life of this patent

One Way Time of Flight Distance Measurement

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims32