Uniform calibration of networked radar based on unmanned aerial vehicle and GPS

Radar network technology is one of important means to deal with the rapid development of electronic countermeasure technology and “four threats”. Before its application, the uniform calibration of the networked radar must be carried out. If not, one target will display multiple batches. It causes the confusion of networked radar information. In the paper, a succinct and efficient calibration method is developed based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and global positioning system (GPS). The UAV equipped GPS is conducted as the detection target of networked radar. The geodetic coordinates of UAV and networked radar is measured by differential GPS positioning technology. Using the coordinate transformation, the UAV coordinates is obtained in sphere coordinate system whose origin is the radar. Compared with the measured UAV coordinates in the radar's sphere coordinate system, the uniform calibration of networked radar is implemented in real time. The developed calibration method can be directly used in engineering reality, and provide necessary preparation work for the data fusion of networked radar.