Patent ID: 7400297

Claim:
A method for localizing one or more sources, the sources being in motion relative to a network of sensors, the method comprising the following steps: separating the sources in order to identify the direction vectors associated with the response of the sensors to a source at a given incidence; associating the direction vectors a 1p(1)m . . . a (K)m obtained for the m th source and, respectively, for the instants t 1 . . . t K and for the wavelengths λ p(1) . . . , λ p(K) , and localizing the m th source from the components of the vectors a 1p(1)m . . . a (K)m ; wherein, in considering that, for each pair, (t k ,λ p(k) ), M k vectors a kp(k)j (1<j<M k ) have been identified, where M k is the number of sources at k, the step of association for K pairs (t k ,λ p(k) ) comprises the following steps: 1) resetting of the process at k=0, m=1 and number of sources M=1 and, for all triplets (t k ,λ p(k) ,j), resetting a flag of association with a source flag kj at flag kj =0; 2) searching for an index j and a pair (t k ,λ p(k) ) such that the flag, flag kj =0; 3) for first triplet (t k ,λ p(k) ,j) obtained at the step 2, effecting flag kj =1 and resetting a test flag of association with the source of the first triplet link k′i =0 for k′≠k and i′≠j and ind m ={k} and Φ m ={a kp(k)j }; 4) determining the pair (t k′ ,λ p(k′) ) minimizing a distance d kk between pairs (t k′ ,λ p(k′) ) and (t k ,λ p(k) ) such that kεind m in the time-frequency space and in which there exists at least one vector b i =a k′p(k′)i such that flag k′i =0 and link k′i =0; 5) in using the relationship (4) defined here above, determining the index i(m) that minimizes the difference between the vectors a kp(k)m such that kεind m and the vectors b i identified with the instant-wavelength pairs (t k′ ,λ p(k′) ) for (1<i<M k′ ) and flag k′i =0 and link k′i =0; 6) setting link k′i(m) =1: the test of association has been performed; 7) if d(a kp(k)m , b i(m) )<η and |t k −t k′ |<Δt max then: Φ m ={Φ m b i(m) }, ind m ={ind m k′}, flag k′i(m) =1; 8) if there is at least one doublet (t k′ ,λ p(k′) ) and one index i such that link k′i =0, then repeating the steps from the step 4; 9) defining the family of vectors Φ m ={a 1p(1)m . . . a K(m),p(K(m)),m } associated with the source indexed by m in writing K(m)=cardinal(Φ m ); and 10) from the family of vectors Φ m ={a 1p(1),m . . . a K(M),p(K(M)),m }, extracting the J instants t i εind J ⊂ind m which correspond to aberrant points located outside a defined zone; 11) returning to the step 3) if there is at least one triplet (t k ,λ p(k) ,j) such that flag kj =0.