| CPC G01S 5/02524 (2020.05) [G01S 5/0257 (2013.01); G01S 7/285 (2013.01)] | 14 Claims |
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1. A radio frequency (RF) pulse correlator comprising:
a track database configured to store established tracks of RF emissions;
an antenna and a receiver configured to receive RF pulses;
a tracker configured to generate improved geolocation data for every received RF pulse based on kinematics of the received RF pulses, wherein the improved geolocation data includes a latitude and longitude of a point of origin for each received RF pulse;
a processor communicatively coupled to the database, the receiver, and the tracker, wherein the processor is configured to associate each received RF pulse with an existing track in the track database or to create a new track; and
wherein the processor is configured to perform the following steps:
a) time-sorting the received RF pulses based on a time of intercept (TOI) corresponding to each RF pulse;
b) removing a given pulse as a candidate for associating with a given track in the track database if the given pulse's TOI falls outside a range of time values corresponding to the given track;
c) removing the given pulse as a candidate for associating with the given track if the given pulse's pulse width (PW) falls outside a range of PW values corresponding to the given track;
d) removing the given pulse as a candidate for associating with the given track if the given pulse's RF falls outside a frequency range corresponding to the given track;
e) removing the given pulse as a candidate for associating with the given track if the given pulse's improved geolocation data fall outside a range of geolocation values corresponding to the given track;
f) if the given pulse has not been removed as a candidate for association in steps (b)-(e):
i) leveraging a Kalman filter to calculate a most likely position of the given track as if the given pulse were associated with the given track,
ii) calculating a PW score, an RF score, and a geolocation/kinematics score for the given pulse with respect to the given track at its most likely position,
iii) calculating a total score for the given pulse with respect to the given track equal to (a kinematic weight times the kinematic score)+ (an RF weight times the RF score)+ (a PW weight times the PW score),
iv) identifying the given track as a candidate track if the total score for the given pulse with respect to the given track is above a score threshold;
g.) repeating steps (b) through (f) for the given pulse and every track in the track database;
h.) creating a new active track based on the given pulse if the total score for the given pulse with respect to every track in the track database is below the score threshold; and
i.) associating the given pulse with a candidate track with respect to which the given pulse has a highest total score.
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