JPH0551870B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an integrated detection device that combines a plurality of relatively simple radars each having an independent tracking function. This relates to a device that combines a plurality of microwave or millimeter wave radars that mainly have a tracking function, and has a common mechanism that has a search function, like the parent bullet that has the same function.

(Summary of the Invention) The present invention is composed of a plurality of relatively simple radars mainly having a tracking function, and a common mechanism for integrating and controlling them to achieve a search function and a pulse compression function as a whole device. This is a low-cost device with high target detection ability.

(Prior Art) FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a single radar with search and tracking functions using conventional pulse compression technology. In this figure, 1 is a chirp signal generator that generates a chirp signal for pulse compression, 2 is an intermediate frequency oscillator, 8 is a carrier wave oscillator (and for local oscillation of the received signal), and up converter 3 is an intermediate chirp signal generator. The up converter 7 is for transmitting waves, and the receiver mixer 14 is for converting received waves to an intermediate frequency. 4A is an amplifier that amplifies the output of the up converter 3, 10 is a pulse amplifier that amplifies the output of the up converter 7, 11 is a pulse driver that sends out basic signals for performing pulse operation, 12 is a circulator, and 4B is an intermediate It is an amplifier for frequency signals. These, antenna 13, pulse compressor 18, detector 1
5, a signal processing section 19 having a search/tracking function, and an antenna scanning section constitute a pulse compression radar.

Next, the operation will be explained. The outputs of the chirp signal generator 1 and the intermediate frequency oscillator 2 are combined by an up converter 3 and amplified by an amplifier 4A, and then a transmission wave is generated by the output of a carrier wave oscillator 8 (which also serves as a local oscillator) and the transmission wave up converter 7. , the pulse is amplified by the pulse amplifier 10 and then transmitted from the antenna 13 via the circulator 12.

The reflected wave is transmitted from the antenna 13 to the circulator 12
is sent to the receiving path. This received wave is converted into an intermediate frequency by a part of the output of the carrier wave oscillator 8 and a mixer 14, passed through an amplifier 4B, pulse-compressed by a pulse compressor 18, and passed through a detector 15 as a video signal for signal processing with search and tracking functions. Sent to Department 19. The signal processing section performs calculations necessary for search, tracking, etc., and outputs command signals to the antenna scanning section and the like.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) When the above-mentioned pulse compression radars are simply collected and operated simultaneously without any control between them, electromagnetic interference, etc. can cause their capabilities to not only combine, but also to It may also reduce performance. Further, even when each radar operation is performed in a time-sharing manner, the hardware is duplicated, the volume is relatively large, the device is heavy, and the cost is not high.

Therefore, the present invention attempts to eliminate electromagnetic interference, reduce size, weight, cost, and improve performance by controlling each radar and efficiently allocating functions.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A first invention according to the present invention includes a transmission system that transmits a pulse transmission wave from an antenna, and a reception signal that amplifies a reflected wave of the transmitted pulse transmission wave by the antenna. , a reception system that performs wave detection processing, and includes multiple radars with independent tracking functions, as well as a chirp signal generator that generates a chirp signal for pulse compression, and combines the received signals of each radar. a synthesizer, a pulse compressor receiving the synthesizer output, and a detector detecting the pulse compressor output;
A common mechanism having an integrated signal processor that receives the output of the detector is provided, and the common mechanism supplies the chirp signal to the transmission system of each radar during a search, and pulses are transmitted from each radar in a time-division manner. The configuration is such that a single transmission wave whose frequency changes continuously as a whole is transmitted.

Further, a second invention according to the present invention includes a transmission system that transmits a pulse transmission wave from an antenna, and a reception system that amplifies and detects a received signal received by the antenna, a reflected wave of the transmitted pulse transmission wave. and a chirp signal generator that generates a chirp signal for pulse compression, a combiner that combines the received signals of each radar, and the combiner. a pulse compressor that receives an output; a detector that detects the output of the pulse compressor;
A common mechanism having an integrated signal processor that receives the output of the detector is provided, and the common mechanism supplies the chirp signal to the transmission system of each radar during a search, and continuously transmits the frequency from each radar. This is a mechanism that simultaneously transmits changing pulse transmission waves.

(Function) In the integrated detection device of the present invention, each radar is configured as simply as possible, for example, it has only a tracking function, and when integrated, it has a search function, and as a mechanism that further improves the detection function,
A pulse compression mechanism is added as a common mechanism.
Moreover, by controlling each radar unit, electromagnetic interference can be eliminated, and by making the search function of each radar unit independent and sharing it throughout, the mission burden on each radar unit can be reduced, making it possible to reduce the size, weight, and cost. .
It is possible to perform pulse compression as a common mechanism, improve search and detection capabilities such as distance resolution, and enhance capabilities as a collective.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, embodiments of the integrated detection device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The implementation of this invention can be roughly divided into two steps as follows. One is the time division transmission method,
The other method is simultaneous transmission.

(1) Time-division transmission system FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the time-division transmission system of the present invention. For simplicity, the figure shows two radars A and B (the upper part is radar A,
The lower part shows the case with radar B), and the left side of the dotted line shows each radar unit, and the right side shows the common mechanism.

Each of the radars A and B on the left side of the dotted line in the figure includes a switch 5, a tracking intermediate frequency oscillator 6, a transmission wave up converter 7, a carrier wave oscillator 8 (also used as a local oscillator), a pulse amplifier 10, a pulse driver 11, and a circulator 12. , antenna 13,
receiver mixer 14, intermediate frequency amplifier 4B,
A detector 15 and a single signal processor 16 (having a tracking function) are each provided. Here, switch 5 supplies the output of oscillator 6 to upconverter 7 when the radar enters tracking mode (when the common mechanism on the right side of the dotted line is disconnected and radars A and B are also separated from each other). It operates as follows and forms a tracking loop within the radar itself. Further, signal processing after single detection only needs to be performed for tracking. In this method, since each radar does not transmit simultaneously, there is no need to adjust the phase of the transmitted waves. Although each radar unit has a function of independently scanning the antenna 13 with an antenna scanning unit, the antenna 13 of each radar unit is oriented in the same direction during a search by the integrated signal processor 19 of a common mechanism, which will be described later. controlled to do so.

The pulse compression mechanism added as a common mechanism is shown to the right of the dotted line in FIG. 1 for the configuration of these individual radars. That is, as common mechanisms, a chirp signal generator 1, an intermediate frequency oscillator 2, an up converter 3, an amplifier 4A, a synthesizer 17,
A pulse compressor 18, a wave detector 15A, an integrated signal processor 19 (having both a search function and a tracking function) that receives the output of the wave detector, and a synchronization signal generator 22 for time-divisionally operating the radars A and BB. It is provided.

The trigger signal S ₁ of the synchronization signal generator 22 is applied to the pulse driver 11 of radar A, and the trigger signal S ₂ is applied to the pulse driver 11 of radar B. FIG. 6 shows the operation time of the pulse driver in the time-division transmission system, in which the pulse driver 11 of radar A is activated from time t 1 to time t ₂ by the trigger signal S ₁ from the synchronization signal generator 22 _.
At the same time as the operation of radar A's pulse driver 11 ends, radar B's pulse driver 1
1 operates from time t ₂ to time t ₃ in response to trigger signal S ₂ . In this way, the pulse drivers of each individual radar operate one after another without duplication. However, the sum total of each pulse driver operating time is equal to the transmission pulse width.

To perform pulse compression, the center frequency of the transmitted wave must be changed continuously over time. In the case of Fig. 1 with radars A and B, when radar A transmits, at time t ₁ at the intermediate frequency
Assume that the frequency is continuously changed to f ₁ +f _c from t 2 to t ₂ . Next, it is assumed that radar B is operated in the same manner and the frequency is continuously changed from f ₂ to f ₂ +f _c from time t ₂ to t ₃ . At this time, f ₁ + f _c =
If f ₂ , the frequency from time t ₁ to t ₃ is from f ₁ to f ₂ +
It will change continuously up to f _c . This can be done by synchronizing the intermediate frequency oscillator 2 in the common mechanism with the transmission timing of each radar and causing a frequency change such that f ₁ +f _c =f ₂ . The output pattern of this intermediate frequency oscillator 2 is shown in FIG. In the operation of searching for a target by performing this pulse compression, each radar A and B is connected to a common mechanism, and the output of the amplifier 4A on the common mechanism side is applied to an up converter 7 through a switch 5 in each radar. During a search, the outputs of each individual radar are combined to increase the detection distance, so each individual radar points in the same direction.

The reflected waves transmitted in this manner have the same waveform for each radar unit. FIG. 3 shows the output waveform and output frequency of the receiver mixer 14 at this time. 3A shows the output waveform of the mixer 14 (the relationship between amplitude and time), and FIG. 3B shows the relationship between the output frequency of the mixer 14 and time. A synthesizer 17 having a common mechanism synthesizes the mixer outputs of each individual radar, and a pulse compressor 18 pulse-compresses the result. After detecting this output and converting it into a video signal, it is input to an integrated signal processor 19 having a search function to detect a target. in this case,
By integrating the time-sharing operations of each unit,
By increasing the pulse compression ratio, highly sensitive target searching becomes possible.

Even during target searching, the individual radars detect waves within each unit, obtain video output, and monitor whether each unit enters tracking mode. Each unit searches while it is integrated, but once each unit is able to track all targets, each unit is assigned which one to track for multiple targets. In this case, in addition to the single radar participating in the target search, if there is another radar in the same container that is not participating in the target search and can receive target search data, They can also be assigned tracking missions.

When each radar unit becomes capable of tracking, each radar unit is separated from the common mechanism and separated from each other, and each radar unit adds the built-in intermediate frequency oscillator 6 for tracking to the up converter 7 through the switch 5, and assigns independently track the target. That is, when the distance to the target becomes sufficiently close that it becomes possible to track the target with a single radar, each single radar separately tracks the target, so the pointing direction differs for each single radar.

(2) Simultaneous Transmission System FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the simultaneous transmission system of the present invention. In this case as well, we have drawn the case of two radars for simplicity. Previous item
Similarly to (1), the switch 5 alone is necessary when entering the tracking mode, and the signal processing after detection by the single unit only performs those related to tracking.

This is the same configuration as the previous section (1), which focuses only on the tracking function, but in this method, each unit transmits simultaneously, so phase adjustment is required. That is, a phase shifter 9 is inserted between the upconverter 7 and the pulse amplifier 10 on each radar unit side, and on the common mechanism side, it is checked how much the phase of each individual carrier wave oscillator 8 (also used as a local oscillator) differs. A phase detector 20 and a phase adjuster 21 are provided for this purpose. Then, phase detection is performed by the phase detector 20, and the output is phase-adjusted through the phase adjuster 21, and then inputted to the phase shifter 9 for phase monitoring, and the phase of the output of the up converter 7 is aligned through the phase shifter 9. . In addition, each pulse driver 1
1 phase should match (pulse driver 1
1 output is low frequency and easy to match). That is, by applying the trigger signals S ₃ and S ₄ at the same timing from the synchronization signal generator 22 to the pulse drivers 11 of radars A and B, as can be seen from the operation time of the pulse drivers in the simultaneous transmission method shown in FIG. , the pulse drivers 11 of radar A and radar B start operating at the same time and operate for the same time. The operating time of the pulse driver is equal to the transmission pulse width.
The other configuration may be the same as the configuration in the previous section (1), and the same parts are given the same reference numerals.

It is also possible to perform beam scanning using this phase shifter 9. That is, in the case of the simultaneous transmission method, each radar unit has a phase shifter 9, and the phases of each shifter 9 can be changed in relation to each other by instructions from the phase adjuster 21 in the common mechanism. can. The function of the phase adjuster 21 is to align the phase of the carrier wave oscillator 8 of each radar unit, and to perform beam scanning by combining the antennas 13 of all radar units that transmit simultaneously, by adjusting the phase shifter 9 of each radar unit. It's about controlling. Phase control is performed by the phase shifter 9 of each radar unit, involving the antennas 13 of all radar units that transmit simultaneously (the phase shifter and antenna to be phase-controlled are not the same).

The pulse compression mechanism is the same as in the previous section (1), but since each unit transmits at the same frequency at the same time, the oscillation frequency of the intermediate frequency oscillator 2 may be constant. Since the phase of the reflected waves received by each unit is monitored, it is almost the sum of the waves received individually, and the intermediate frequency outputs are combined and pulse-compressed, so the peak value of the received wave is independent. This is considerably larger than when sending and receiving. The compressed and detected signal is processed by a signal processor 1 having a search function.
9 to perform target detection. This method allows for high-speed beam scanning similar to electronic scanning antennas, and monopulse angle measurement. In this method, too, during a search, the outputs of each individual radar are combined to increase the detection distance, so the pointing direction is the same. Then, as in the previous section (1), each unit detects waves during integration, monitors whether to enter tracking mode while taking into account the influence of other radar outputs on received power, and assigns tracking. This can be done in the same way as in the previous section (1).
After the radar becomes capable of tracking a target and enters the tracking mode, each radar individually tracks the target, so the direction in which each radar points is different.

In addition, in both the time division transmission method and the simultaneous transmission method, each radar unit only needs to have the same tracking function, such as distance tracking, angle tracking,
Alternatively, any tracking method such as distance tracking or angle tracking may be used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the integrated detection device of the present invention, each radar unit only needs to have a tracking function, so it is smaller and lighter, and less expensive, and by controlling it, there is no electromagnetic interference. In addition, since it has a pulse compression mechanism during search (integration),
The peak value of a single transmitted wave does not need to be very high. Because the tracking function and search function are organized separately,
It is possible to avoid duplication of devices without deteriorating the functions when integrated, and to achieve a reduction in size and weight of the entire integrated device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the time-division transmission system of the integrated detection device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the output pattern of the intermediate frequency oscillator 2, and FIG. An explanatory diagram showing temporal changes in output waveform and output frequency, FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the simultaneous transmission system of the present invention, and FIG. 5 explains a conventional radar having a single pulse compression mechanism. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the pulse driver operating time in the case of the time-division transmission method embodiment, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the pulse driver operating time in the case of the simultaneous transmission method embodiment. 1...Chirp signal generator, 2...Intermediate frequency oscillator, 3...Up converter, 4,4A,
4B...Amplifier, 5...Switch, 6...Intermediate frequency oscillator for tracking, 7...Up converter for transmission wave, 8...Carrier wave oscillator, 9...Phase shifter, 10
...Pulse amplifier, 11 ...Pulse driver, 1
2...Circulator, 13...Antenna, 14
... mixer, 15 ... detector, 16 ... single signal processor, 17 ... combiner, 18 ... pulse compressor, 19 ... signal processor for integration, 20 ... phase detector, 21 ... ...Phase adjuster.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting system that transmits a pulsed communication wave from an antenna, and a receiving system that amplifies and detects a received signal received by the antenna, which is a reflected wave of the transmitted pulsed transmission wave. , a chirp signal generator that generates a chirp signal for pulse compression, a combiner that combines the received signals of each radar, and a pulse compressor that receives the output of the combiner. a detector for detecting the output of the pulse compressor;
a common mechanism having integrated signal processing that receives the detector output; the common mechanism supplies the chirp signal to the transmission system of each radar during a search, and transmits the pulse transmission wave from each radar in a time-division manner; An integrated detection device characterized in that it transmits a single transmission wave whose frequency changes continuously as a whole. 2. It has a transmission system that transmits a pulse transmission wave from an antenna, and a reception system that amplifies and detects a received signal received by the antenna, which is a reflected wave of the transmitted pulse transmission wave, and independently has a tracking function. a chirp signal generator that generates a chirp signal for pulse compression; a combiner that combines the received signals of each radar; a pulse compressor that receives the output of the combiner; a detector that detects the output of the detector;
a common mechanism having an integrated signal processor that receives the output of the detector, and the common mechanism supplies the chirp signal to the transmission system of each radar during a search, and continuously transmits the frequency from each radar. An integrated detection device characterized by simultaneously transmitting changing pulse transmission waves.