Qinetiq Limited

Stephen David Hayward

Timothy Ingram Cox

Neil Anthony Salmon

Tej Paul Kaushal

Richard Oliver Lane

Marie Harper Anderson

A method and system for locating objects in a region having a high degree of multipath susceptibility comprises a plurality of transducers, each being a transmit or receive antenna, and being arranged about the region in known locations, to form a bistatic or multistatic radar, with some embodiments being MIMO systems. Signals transmitted by the transmit antenna(s) are received at each receive antenna and processed to form a set of channel impulse responses, or power delay profiles, representative of the region at a given time. A second set is formed at a different time, and the difference between the two sets is calculated, the difference containing information on movement within the region. The difference may be processed to localize the moving object(s) by graphical means, e.g. by generating an x-y image representative of the region, and accumulating at each pixel appropriate values of the profile difference selected according to the propagation delay between a transmit-receive antenna pair via a region point represented by the pixel.

Radar method and apparatus suitable for use in multipath environments

A passive detection device is disclosed comprising a plurality of antennas, receivers, and a digital beamformer, wherein the antennas and receivers are adapted to receive radiation of millimeter wavelengths from a near field region, to process and digitize it. The beamformer is adapted to process the received information and to generate static image information relating to the region. An indication means is provided to indicate the presence of objects of interest. The beamformer is preferentially adapted to generate information simultaneously in a plurality of planes at different distances from the apparatus. The indication means may comprise an array of pixels along the length of the apparatus to display image information, and may use the multi-planar information to construct images of the region comprising data from a plurality of planes. The invention has utility in security scanning applications such as at airports or other locations where security detection equipment is employed.

Passive detection apparatus

A method for detecting perturbation of a physical system from a reference state associated with a reference parameter (&#x3c9;) to a perturbed state associated with a perturbed parameter (&#x3c9;) includes firstly deriving the reference parameter (&#x3c9;). A reference vector (F) is then derived which describes the system's state at the reference parameter (&#x3c9;). A measurement-related vector (Z) associated with a perturbed state of the system is then subtracted from the reference vector (F) to provide an error vector (E). The error vector members are summed and normalised by division of a summation of elements of a vector (F') representing a derivative (f(&#x3c9;&#x3b4;&#x3c9;)) of a reference itself represented by the reference vector (F), the derivative (f(&#x3c9;&#x3b4;&#x3c9;)) being evaluated at the reference parameter (&#x3c9;). This provides a result equal to the difference (&#x3c9;&#x2212;(&#x3c9;) between the perturbed parameter (&#x3c9;) and the reference parameter (&#x3c9;).

Perturbation detection

The invention provides an adaptive sensor array apparatus ( ) incorporating a multielement antenna ( ) for receiving radiation from a scene ('S') and generating signals (e) in response thereto and a processing unit ( ) for processing the signals (e) to provide an output signal (y). The unit ( ) comprises an adaptive weight computer ( ) arranged to generate weighting vectors (w) which are used in the unit ( ) to attenuate contributions to the output signal (y) arising from sources of jamming radiation in the scene and transmit contributions to the output signal (y) arising from wanted targets therein. The apparatus ( ) incorporates a non-adaptive beamformer unit ( ) for preconditioning the signals (e) before they are passed to the computer ( ). Preconditioning the signals (e) enhances performance of the apparatus ( ) relative to conventional adaptive sensor array apparatus ( ).

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Malvern, United Kingdom

Stephen David Hayward