Monitoring vehicle motion using surface-penetrating radar system and doppler shifts
OwnerConnor QUINN, Bryan J. FOX +3inventors
InventorsConnor QUINN, Bryan J. FOX, Sanford FREEDMAN, Daniel JAMISON, Byron STANLEY
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Abstract
Doppler analysis of surface-penetrating radar signals are utilized to compute or estimate parameters associated with vehicle motion. The Doppler shift may originate with reflections from subsurface or above-surface features ahead of (or behind) the moving vehicle, in which case a vehicle speed may be computed from the shift; or may originate with reflections from surface or subsurface features directly below the vehicle, in which case the shift corresponds to a vertical speed that may be used to sense the performance of, or changes in, the vehicle's suspension system.
Claims17
A navigation system comprising:
- a surface-penetrating radar (SPR) system;
- an image-generation module for processing signals from the SPR system into images including subsurface features;
- a navigation system for determining a location based on the images generated by the image-generation module and a library of reference SPR images;
- a Doppler filter for extracting a Doppler shift from signals from the SPR system;
- and
- a speed-computation module for determining at least one of a vertical or a horizontal speed from the extracted Doppler shift.
A method of navigation comprising the steps of:
- computationally processing signals received from an SPR system integrated with a vehicle into images including subsurface features;
- computationally determining a location based on the images and a library of reference SPR images;
- extracting a Doppler shift from the signals from the SPR system;
- and
- determining at least one of a vertical or a horizontal speed from the extracted Doppler shift.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.