Randy R Black

US Patent:

7777666, Aug 17, 2010

Filed:

Jun 4, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/133154

Inventors:

William Gregory - Gilbert AZ, US
Mitch Fletcher - Glendale AZ, US
Randy Black - Phoenix AZ, US

Assignee:

Honeywell International Inc. - Morristown NJ

International Classification:

G01S 13/90
G01S 13/00
G01S 13/89

US Classification:

342 25A, 342 25 R, 342 42, 342 43, 342175, 342176, 342179, 342190, 342191, 342195

Abstract:

Systems and methods for mapping a surface of a celestial body containing objects and terrain are provided. One system includes a Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) module configured to capture a high-resolution image of the terrain of at least a portion of the surface and a map module configured to store map data representing the portion of the surface. The system also includes a fusion module configured to combine the high-resolution image and the map data to generate a high-resolution map of the portion of the surface. A method includes orbiting the celestial body, capturing, via the SAR module, a high-resolution image during each orbit, and fusing the captured high-resolution image with a low-resolution map of the surface to generate a high-resolution map of the surface. A computer-readable medium for storing instructions that cause a processor to perform the above method is also provided.