Hyperbolic-phase method of comparison for determining the location of surface-bound vehicles and apparatus for carrying out this method

Abstract

Abstract 1. A method for locating surface vehicles using hyperbolic phase comparison wherein, in response to an interrogation, the vehicle to be located cyclically emits modulated measuring signals on respective high frequency carriers, which measuring signals are received by a plurality of separately arranged receiving stations, demodulated and compared with a reference signal of the same frequency produced by a stationary oscillator, and wherein the respective phase differences are digitally transmitted to a central unit and analysed for the formation of transit time differences in order to determine therefrom the actual vehicle position as the intersecting point of the hyperbolic coordinates, which correspond to the transit time differences, and wherein from time to time a calibration transmitter transmits calibration signals to the receiving stations in order to obtain correction values, characterized in that the calibration signals (es1, es2, es3) are transmitted in the same fashion as the measuring signals (ms1, ms2, ms3) of the vehicles (FZ) and included in the interrogation cycle for the vehicles in the receiving stations (E1, E2, E3) and analysed in the central unit (Z), where by comparison with the transit times of the calibration signals (es1, es2, es3), which have been calculated from the exactly known position of the calibration transmitter (ES), correction values (k1, k2, k3) are obtained for the different phase position of the reference signals (bs1, bs2, bs3) in the different receiving stations (E1, E2, E3) and considered in the formation of the hyperbolic coordinates for the vehicle location.

Inventors

• 👤 Peer Dr. Thilo

Bibliographic Details