Collision warning system
AssigneeThe Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
InventorsMichael Dean, Robert D Hodges
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Abstract
A collision warning system (10) discriminates between objects which pose a threat of collision from those which do not by measuring the relative sightline rate of the object, this being a measure of the rate of change of angular position of the object if the sightline rate is above a threshold value, there is little risk of collision. To measure the sightline rate, a radar source (20) emits microwave frequency radiation which is received by two detectors (22 and 24) after reflection from a target. Signals from the detectors are processed by processing means (26). The processing means determines if the sightline rate of an object is below a certain threshold. If it is, and the relative velocities of the object and the system are such that a collision is likely, a warning buzzer (28) sounds.
Claims10
A collision warning system having a field of view, said system comprising:
- (i) a source of radiation;
- (ii) a receiver for receiving radiation emitted by the source and reflected by an object in the field of view and for generating receiver signals in response thereto;
- and
- (iii) a processor for processing said receiver signals to determine whether or not an object presents a collision risk, said processor comprising an apparatus for determining from receiver signals measures of sightline rates of objects having a sightline rate greater than a set value in order to distinguish between objects which do and do not present collision risks, sightline rate being defined as rate of change of angular position of the object with respect to the system, wherein
- (a) the receiver comprises a plurality of antennas;
- and
- (b) the processor includes a combiner for combining signals from different antennas to generate composite signals having polar sensitivity responses such that no direction within the system field of view is associated with a null of every polar sensitivity response.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.