Patent ID: 11947025
Assignee: KRATOS ANTENNA SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. An apparatus for tracking a satellite signal source using an antenna with a predetermined beamwidth, the apparatus comprising:
an antenna drive adapted to rotate an RF axis of the antenna within a single plane through three or more predetermined measurement angles;
a receiver which measures a signal level at each angle; and
a controller configured to
retain three measured signal levels and corresponding angular positions of the predetermined measurement angles such that the measured signal level at the second angular position exceeds that of both the first and third angular positions,
determine a set of coefficients of a quadratic function that relates the measured signals to the angular positions,
determine an angular position which maximizes a signal level from the signal source using the coefficients of the quadratic function,
repeat the preceding steps in an orthogonal plane to provide a signal source position,
periodically performing the foregoing determining the direction of the antenna to receive maximum signal level process to obtain a set of first and second determined angular positions,
submitting the set of angular positions to a Kalman filter to generate a filtered output;
using the filtered output to estimate the position of the satellite.