Correlation method for SONAR or RADAR

1. A method comprising:

identifying, in processing electronics, at least two pair of receivers for all possible velocity vectors for a moving object;

forming correlations, in the processing electronics, using spatial correlation techniques, for data samples comprising In-phase and Quadrature components for all pairs of identified receivers;

combining the correlations in the processing electronics for each of the velocity vectors;

forming a correlation array element in the processing electronics by summing over all correlations for each velocity vector;

forming a correlation array in the processing electronics from all of the correlation array elements; and

determining velocity of the moving object using the correlation array.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein all available pairs of receivers are identified in the processing electronics for each possible velocity vector.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a signal at a receiver;

processing the signal, whereby the processing comprises sampling the signal and representing each sample in terms of the In-Phase (I) and the Quadrature (Q) components.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the task of processing the signal further comprises:

amplifying the signal;

digitizing the signal;

bandpass filtering the signal; and

frequency translating the signal to baseband.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the receiver is a hydrophone.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the receiver is an antenna element.

7. The method of claim 3 further comprising transmitting a pulse, wherein the signal is an echo of the pulse.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the pulse is transmitted through water.

9. A method for determining velocity of a moving object via spatial correlation techniques, wherein the method comprises:

transmitting a series of pulses from the moving object and detecting echoes of the pulses at a plurality of receivers;

generating, in processing electronics, in-phase and quadrature data from data pertaining to the echoes;

identifying, in the processing electronics, at least two pairs of receivers for all possible velocity vectors for a moving object;

forming, in the processing electronics, a correlation array comprising correlation array elements developed from data obtained from the at least two pairs of receivers for all the velocity vectors; and

determining velocity of the moving object using the correlation array.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the operation of identifying at least two pairs of receivers further comprises identifying all available receiver pairs for each velocity vector and wherein the operation of forming a correlation array further comprises forming, in the processing electronics, a correlation array comprising correlation array elements developed from data obtained from all available receiver pairs for each velocity vector.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the operation of forming a correlation array further comprises:

correlating, in the processing electronics, using spatial correlation techniques, data from the at least two receiver pairs;

combining, in the processing electronics, the correlated data for each velocity vector; and

forming, in the processing electronics, a complex correlation element by summing, for each velocity vector, the correlated data.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the operation of forming a correlation array further comprises:

correlating, in the processing electronics, using spatial correlation techniques, data from the at least two receiver pairs;

forming complex correlation sums by summing, in the processing electronics, the correlated data for each velocity vector; and

forming a complex correlation element, in the processing electronics, by combining the complex correlation sums for the at least two receiver pairs for each velocity vector.

13. A method comprising:

identifying, in processing electronics, at least two pairs of receivers for all possible velocity vectors for a moving object;

forming correlations, in the processing electronics, using spatial correlation techniques, for data samples comprising In-Phase and Quadrature components for the at least two pairs of identified receivers;

forming a plurality of complex correlation sums for the at least two pair of identified receivers by summing, in the processing electronics, all correlations for each velocity vector;

forming a correlation array element by combining, in the processing electronics, for the at least two pairs of identified receivers for each given velocity vector, the complex correlation sums;

forming a correlation array in the processing electronics from all of the correlation array elements; and

determining velocity of the moving object using the correlation array.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein all available pairs of receivers are identified, in the processing electronics for each possible velocity vector.