The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1997
My Tran, Albuquerque, NM (US);
John E Rasinski, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Paul M Birmingham, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
A dual radio frequency interferometer aided by laser rangefinder and terrain database system utilizes two linear rays of RFI sensors to determine the position of a source of RF energy. The dual RFI system is very attractive in that it is a passive system and cannot be detected by other sensors or systems while it is going through its position determination operation. Furthermore, use of two linear arrays of sensors allows for the elimination of chronic effects inherent in radio frequency interferometers. The two linear arrays can be placed anywhere on a vehicle as long as they are in the same common geometric plane and in-flight mechanisms are provided to transform the coordinate systems from the in-flight platform coordinates to the local geodetic coordinates. This provides positioning and source identification which can be beneficial to not only the present system but other systems in the area. With the two linear arrays, a line-of-sight vector can be determined and other systems can be provided with this information in order to provide further details of the source position. Once a pointing vector has been determined, this information can be used with other active systems in order to provide a precise range and location of the source of the RF signals.