Ultra-wideband radios for time-of-flight-ranging and network position estimation

Patent · 14 June 2011

OSTI ID:1019092

Hertzog, Claudia A ^[1]; Dowla, Farid U ^[2]; Dallum, Gregory E ^[3]; Romero, Carlos E ^[3]

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1. Houston, TX
2. Castro Valley, CA
3. Livermore, CA

This invention provides a novel high-accuracy indoor ranging device that uses ultra-wideband (UWB) RF pulsing with low-power and low-cost electronics. A unique of the present invention is that it exploits multiple measurements in time and space for very accurate ranging. The wideband radio signals utilized herein are particularly suited to ranging in harsh RF environments because they allow signal reconstruction in spite of multipath propagation distortion. Furthermore, the ranging and positioning techniques discussed herein directly address many of the known technical challenges encountered in UWB localization regarding synchronization and sampling. In the method developed, noisy, corrupted signals can be recovered by repeating range measurements across a channel, and the distance measurements are combined from many locations surrounding the target in a way that minimizes the range biases associated to indirect flight paths and through-wall propagation delays.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• Assignee: Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (Livermore, CA)
• Patent Number(s): 7,962,150
• Application Number: US Patent Application 11/637,388
• OSTI ID: 1019092
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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