Patent ID: 8816897

Claim:
A method of estimating an angular position θ c of a target detected by a radar equipping a mobile carrier, said radar emitting, via a steerable antenna, a signal in the form of pulses towards the target and receiving echoes from reflection of said signal on the target, the method being executed by the radar and comprising: estimating, for each pulse or group of pulses of time index i, an angular position θ(i) of the antenna, estimating, for each pulse or group of pulses of time index i, a Doppler frequency f D (i) of the echo or echoes received, pairing, for each pulse or group of pulses of time index i, the angular position θ(i) and the Doppler frequency f D (i), and estimating the angular position θ c of the target at least by solving the equation λ ⁢ ⁢ f D ⁡ ( i ) 2 = V a ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ θ ⁡ ( i ) ⁢ ( θ c - θ ⁡ ( i ) ) + V r , c , in which λ is a wavelength of the radar, V a is a norm of a speed of the carrier and V r,c is a radial speed of the target, wherein the equation λ ⁢ ⁢ f D ⁡ ( i ) 2 = V a ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ θ ⁡ ( i ) ⁢ ( θ c - θ ⁡ ( i ) ) + V r , c is solved by minimizing mean square error E ⁡ ( θ c , V r , c ) = ∑ i = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ ( V a ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ θ ⁡ ( i ) ⁢ ( θ c - θ ⁡ ( i ) ) + V r , c - λ ⁢ ⁢ f D ⁡ ( i ) 2 ) 2 , in which N is a number of the pulses or of the groups of pulses, and the angular position θ c and the radial speed V r,c of the target are equal to a constant over N.