JP2674936B2 - Three-dimensional radar device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a three-dimensional radar device, and more particularly to an electronic scanning type three-dimensional radar device using a phased array antenna for performing adaptive predictive tracking scanning on a moving target.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A three-dimensional radar device that uses a phased array antenna to predict and track a target by adaptive scanning while rapidly grasping not only azimuth information but also altitude information by electronic scanning is a search for evenly scanning the radar coverage area. The beam scanning mode function and for each moving target detected by the search beam scanning mode, the future position for the past track as the passage of time of the spatial position is predicted from the past measurement data, and the tracking beam scanning mode is set at this predicted position. It is operated in combination with a tracking beam scanning mode function for predicting and tracking the tracking beam by the following. Further, in this case, for the scanning in the tracking beam scanning mode, a method of scanning once in a fixed form in which the scanning content is fixed is usually used.

Regarding the three-dimensional radar device itself, for example, "Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Avionics, Minoru Okada, P156-P165" and "Institute of Information and Communication Engineers, Radar Technology, Takashi Yoshida, P294-P297". , Etc.

[0004]

In this conventional three-dimensional radar device, the beam scanning mode in the tracking beam scanning mode is operated in a fixed mode.

When tracking scanning is performed in the tracking beam scanning mode of such a fixed form, since the system gain itself has a limit, the reflection cross section of the tracking target is small, or the distance to the target is long, or In the situation where a sufficient S / N (Signal / Noise) ratio of the received signal cannot be obtained due to various reasons such as the target flying in the clutter and the reflection gain decreasing, the target cannot be detected or lost. Inevitably, in this case, there is a problem that the track data, which is the basis of the predictive tracking for the target, cannot be updated and the track quality is deteriorated.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, to efficiently scan the tracking beam even when the track quality is deteriorated to improve the target detection rate to suppress the deterioration of the track quality, and to obtain a desired tracking performance. It is to provide an adaptive scanning three-dimensional radar device capable of ensuring the following.

[0007]

A three-dimensional radar apparatus according to the present invention has a phased array antenna, a transmitter and a receiver, and a search beam scanning mode and a target for capturing a target by electronic scanning of the phased array antenna. An antenna device that performs transmission and reception in the tracking beam scanning mode after acquisition, and detects the moving target by receiving the transmission information and the reception information of the antenna device, and updates the track position while updating the track position and the quality of the track position and the moving target. A signal processing device that determines the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode based on a distance and a clutter condition with a predetermined number of detection targets, and a beam scanning including the search beam scanning mode and a plurality of the tracking beam scanning modes. The initial pattern of beam scanning scheduling showing the contents of the time allocation of Signal processing unit determines the time zone of the tracking beam scanning mode based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode, and calculates the predicted position including the altitude of the moving target in this set time zone to determine the antenna device. A beam control device for scanning the tracking beam based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode, the set time period, and the pointing of the predicted position.

Further, in the three-dimensional radar device of the present invention, the signal processing device determines the moving target and the moving target position including the altitude based on the transmission information and the reception information of the transmitting part and the receiving part of the antenna device. In the case of a plurality of detection numbers, a target detection / angle measurement processing unit that outputs the position as target position information together with clutter information by a fixed reflector for a specific number in the order of short distance, the target position information and the Based on the clutter information, the track position indicating the time lapse of the position of the moving target is obtained and output as the track position information while updating this at a predetermined timing, and the velocity of the moving target is obtained and the clutter information is obtained as the velocity information. a track position update processing unit that outputs together, to track quality and the distance information of the moving target of the track position information and the clutter information Wherein determining the number of transmissions in Track beam scanning mode Zui has a tracking beam mode selection unit that aggregates outputs this transmission speed and the track position information and the velocity information as the tracking beam form information.

Further, in the three-dimensional radar device of the present invention, the beam control device presets a predetermined first pattern of the beam scanning scheduling including a plurality of the tracking beam scanning modes as an initial pattern, and the tracking beam form is set. Based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode including information, the time zone of the plurality of tracking beam scanning modes is set, and the beam scanning time setting content including the setting content and the number of transmissions is used as the beam scanning scheduling information. In the case of good quality reception that is transmitted together with the tracking beam form information, the number of detections of the moving target specified by the tracking beam form information is singular, and does not require transmission in a plurality of the tracking beam scanning modes,
A beam scanning scheduling unit for transmitting the beam scanning time setting contents together with the beam form information, in which the first pattern of the beam scanning scheduling is a predetermined second pattern in which the tracking beam scanning mode is a single pattern, and the beam scanning A beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit for predictively calculating a beam scanning azimuth and an elevation angle in the tracking beam scanning mode based on the scheduling information and the tracking beam morphology information and sending the beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle together with the transmission number as beam control information.

[0010]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention. The three-dimensional radar device of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a phased array antenna 11 that forms a beam under electronic control, a transmitter 12 that outputs a transmission output to the phased array antenna 11, and an input captured by the phased array antenna 11. The antenna device 1 includes a receiving unit 13 that receives and processes the. Further, the target detection / angle measurement processing unit 21 which detects a moving target from the reception output of the antenna apparatus 1 and sends the target position information 103 obtained by measuring the angle measurement information including the azimuth and elevation angle together with the distance information together with the clutter information 104. And the target position information 103
The track position update processing unit 22 that outputs the track position information 105 while updating the track position of the movement target specified by the track position information 105 while outputting the speed information 106 and the clutter information 104, and the track position information 105. Track quality and moving target distance and clutter information 10
4 is used to determine the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode, and the tracking beam form selecting unit 23 which sends the number and the velocity information and the track position information as the tracking beam form information 107. Have. Furthermore, this three-dimensional radar device has tracking beam form information 10
A beam scanning scheduling unit 31 which determines the time allocation contents of the scanning scheduling including the search beam scanning mode and the tracking beam scanning mode based on 7, and sends out the beam scanning scheduling signal 108 indicating the contents together with the tracking beam form information 107, A beam composed of a beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit 32 that predicts and calculates the azimuth and elevation angle of the scanning beam based on the beam scanning scheduling information 108 and the tracking beam form information 107 and sends a beam control signal 109 to the transmission unit 12. It has a control device 3.

The transmitting unit 12 of the antenna device 1 operates in either the search beam scanning mode or the tracking beam scanning mode under the control of the beam control signal 109 sent from the beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculating unit 32 of the beam control device 3. In that scanning mode, the phased array antenna 11 is electronically scanned.
This electronic scanning is performed based on relative phase control between array elements, as is known. In this case, in the search beam scanning mode, the radar coverage area is evenly scanned, and when the signal processing unit 2 detects a target, the tracking beam scanning mode for adaptively tracking the target is switched to the tracking beam scanning mode. The reception unit 13 first performs reception processing such as amplification on the reception input in the search beam scanning mode, and then performs reception signal 1
01 is sent to the target detection / angle measurement processing unit 21.

The target detection / angle measurement processing unit 21 includes a receiving unit 13
From the transmission unit 12 and the transmission information 102 regarding the transmission timing and the transmission directivity direction from the transmission unit 12, and compares the received pulse included in the received reception signal 101 with a predetermined determination condition to determine whether it is a target or not. A determination is made to detect the moving target. In this case, when there are a plurality of moving targets to be detected, in this embodiment, two targets having a small target distance are targeted for signal processing. The number of target targets and the target selection criteria are three-dimensional radar. In addition to the operation purpose of the device and the target distance, other selection criteria, for example, enemy and ally information, etc. can be taken into consideration to make an arbitrary decision. The target detection / angle measurement processing unit 21 performs angle measurement processing including calculation of the azimuth, angle, and distance for the maximum two targets described above, and the target position information 103 obtained by this angle measurement processing is used to update the track position update processing unit 22. Clutter information 104 detected as fixed reflection information is also transmitted to the track position update processing unit 22.

The track position update processing unit 22 constantly outputs the latest track position information 105 while updating the input target position information 103 at every predetermined time, and moves the target from the time lapse of the target position information. Calculate speed and speed information 10
6 and the clutter information 104 are also output to the tracking beam form selection unit 23.

The tracking beam form selection unit 23 judges the track quality of the inputted track position information 105 based on the judgment conditions such as its level and S / N, and the track position information 1
The number of transmissions (the number of hits) to be transmitted in the tracking beam scanning mode is determined based on the moving target distance included in 05 and the clutter information 104, and the track position information 105 and the velocity information 106 including the number of transmissions and altitude are tracked by the tracking beam. Form information 10
7, and sends them to the beam scanning scheduling unit 31.

The beam scanning scheduling unit 31 of the beam control device 3 sets the tracking beam scanning mode to the tracking beam scanning modes 1002a, 1 in the initial state as shown in FIG.
002b is scheduled twice in succession. In the beam scanning scheduling of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the search beam scanning mode 1001 and the tracking beam scanning modes 1002a and 1002b which are two consecutive times are assigned time zones, and only the search is performed in the search beam scanning mode. In the tracking beam scanning mode, scanning in the tracking mode only is performed. Further, in the tracking beam scanning of FIG. 2, each predetermined number of transmissions (the number of hits) in each of the two allocated time zones of successive tracking beam scanning modes 1002a and 1002b.
Then, scanning is continuously performed in the search beam scanning mode 1001. It should be noted that by repeatedly performing the search beam scanning mode 1001, it is possible to constantly obtain the latest information change in the radar coverage area, which changes frequently.

The beam scanning scheduling unit 31 receives the tracking beam form information 107 from the tracking beam form selecting unit 23.
Based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode included in the input information, the time zones of the equal tracking beam scanning modes 1002a and 1002b shown in FIG. 2 are allocated, and this allocation information is used as beam scanning scheduling information 108 for beam scanning. It is sent to the azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit 32. The beam scanning scheduling unit 31 also sends tracking beam form information 107 to the beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit 32.

The beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit 32 calculates a three-dimensional predicted position including the target predicted altitude in the allocated time zone of the tracking beam allocated by the beam scanning scheduling unit 31, and this three-dimensional predicted position is the tracking beam. The scanning azimuth and elevation of the tracking beam are predicted and calculated so that they exist on the center line of the beam, and this beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle information is sent to the transmitter 12 of the antenna apparatus 1 as the beam control signal 109 together with the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode. Send out.

The transmitting unit 12 determines the tracking beam based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode, the assigned scanning time, the azimuth and the elevation angle of the tracking beam, and performs the target tracking operation.

As described above with reference to FIG. 2, this tracking operation is performed when there are a plurality of targets or when the targets are in the clutter and the detection rate is poor such that the detection rate is to be increased.
After this, the scanning cycle of shifting to the search beam tracking mode again is repeated.

The above-mentioned operation has been described by taking the case of a plurality of targets as an example. However, in the case of a single and good track quality, the tracking beam scanning mode in FIG. The same is done according to the above.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the three-dimensional radar device shown in FIG.

When there are a plurality of detection targets, each of the detection 2 targets in the short distance order is tracked in the normal tracking beam scanning mode (steps S1 and S2). When the number of detection targets is one, the quality of the track is good or bad. When the target distance is good, the distance of the target distance is determined (steps S3 and S4), and when the target distance is bad, the target is tracked in the tracking beam scanning mode twice the normal (steps S3 and S6). Even if the target distance is long in step S4, the process proceeds to step 6 and one target is tracked in the tracking beam scanning mode which is twice the normal tracking beam scanning mode. If it is determined in step S4 that the target is close, it is then determined whether or not the target is in the clutter (step S5). If the target is in the clutter, the process proceeds to step S6 and the tracking is doubled as usual. The beam scanning mode is tracked, and if the target is outside the clutter, one target is tracked in the normal tracking beam scanning mode (step S7).

In this way, when the tracking beam is scanned with the predicted position of the tracking target pointing, in the case of a plurality of targets, each of the two targets selected in ascending order of distance is tracked by the normal number of tracking beams. In addition, if the target route quality deteriorates or the target is distant, the target track data can be updated by suppressing the decrease in the target detection rate by tracking with the number of transmissions that is twice the normal number by itself. The performance can be significantly improved.

In the above-described embodiment, when there are a plurality of detection targets, two targets located at a short distance are selected and each is scanned with a tracking beam having a normal number of transmissions. The distance and the defect detection target in the clutter are each scanned with a tracking beam with twice the normal number of transmissions. However, the target number to be tracked at the same time and the number of tracking beam transmissions for the defect detection target are taken into consideration in the operational purpose. Then both can be set arbitrarily.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the tracking beam scanning mode in which the predicted position of the target track in the three-dimensional radar device is directed and scanned, the track quality of the target track, the target distance, and the target in the clutter. By controlling the number of tracking beam transmissions to be scanned depending on the presence or absence of the target, and simultaneously tracking multiple targets at short distances with a normal number of transmissions, the target detection rate in tracking beam scanning mode is improved, The track data can be updated without lowering the quality, and the tracking performance can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a three-dimensional radar device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of scheduling of beam scanning in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Antenna device 2 Signal processing device 3 Beam control device 21 Target detection / angle measurement processing unit 22 Track position update processing unit 23 Tracking beam form selection unit 31 Beam scanning scheduling unit 32 Beam scanning azimuth / elevation angle calculation unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-227979 (JP, A) JP-A-61-86671 (JP, A) JP-A-4-9787 (JP, A) Actual Kaihei 3- 25178 (JP, U) Actually open 2-109287 (JP, U) JP 57-32346 (JP, B2)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An antenna having a phased array antenna, a transmitter and a receiver, and performing transmission and reception in a search beam scanning mode for target acquisition and a tracking beam scanning mode after target acquisition by electronic scanning of the phased array antenna. Device and the tracking beam scanning based on the quality of the track position information , the distance of the moving target, and the clutter condition while detecting the moving target by receiving the transmission information and the reception information of the antenna device and updating the track position of the moving target. A signal processing device for determining the number of transmissions, which is the number of continuous transmissions of the tracking beam in the mode, for a predetermined number of detection targets, and a beam scanning time allocation including the search beam scanning mode and a plurality of the tracking beam scanning modes. The initial pattern of beam scanning scheduling indicating the contents of Within the time allocation based on the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode
The tracking beam scanning mode operation is set to a time zone, and a predicted position including the altitude of the moving target in the set time zone is calculated to set the antenna device to the number of transmissions in the tracking beam scanning mode . A three-dimensional radar device, comprising: a beam control device for scanning a tracking beam based on the time zone and the orientation of the predicted position. 2. The signal processing device detects the moving target and a moving target position including an altitude based on transmission information and receiving information of a transmitting unit and a receiving unit of the antenna device, and detects the number of moving targets. If there is one, this movement target
A target detection / angle measuring unit outputs with clutter information by the targeted, and a plurality of fixed reflectors For detection number as the target position information the moving target position as a target a specific number of short-range order, the target Based on the position information and the clutter information, the track position indicating the passage of time of the moving target position is obtained and is output as the track position information while updating it at a predetermined timing, and the velocity of the moving target is obtained as velocity information. a track position update processing unit that outputs together with the clutter information, before and quality of the track position information
Based on the distance information of the moving target and the clutter information, the continuously transmitted tracking information in the tracking beam scanning mode is obtained.
The tracking beam form selection unit that determines the number of transmissions of the tail beam, and collectively outputs the number of transmissions, the track position information, and the velocity information as tracking beam form information. Former radar device.