METHOD FOR NON-COHERENT ACCUMULATION OF OPTICAL LOCATION SIGNALS Russian patent published in 2012 - IPC G01C3/08 G01S17/88 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method comprises a series of N probing cycles. In each probing cycle, a probing light pulse S₀(t,t₀) is sent and the time is quantised into units with duration T. In each time unit, the reflected signal S(t, t_D) is received and its value S_jm is determined. Values S_jm are accumulated in each j-th range cell by forming their sums Based on the array of sums {S_j}, the delay τ of the received signal relative the probing pulse T=t_D-t₀ is determined and the range to the target D=cτ/2 is determined. Duration t_i of the probing pulse is established. The probing pulse undergoes preliminary digitisation by determining its sampling values S_0j with sampling period equal to the clock period T and recording the array {S_0j} of those sampling values. At the end of accumulation, the array {S_j} is shifted stepwise relative {S_0j}, on each step p=1, 2, … P_max, while verifying the degree of their coincidence based on a set criterion, e.g., a correlation coefficient The index number of the step P on which the degree of coincidence of arrays {S_j} and {S_0j} optimally correspond to the accepted criterion is determined and the range D to the target is determined using the formula D=cPT/2. The accumulation threshold is established C_N=Qσ_s+M_s.

EFFECT: achieving maximum possibility of rapid measurement of range with maximum operational range and minimum power consumption.

3 cl, 3 dwg