Hi all. Suppose I wanted to accurately track the angle of a moving object from a point in space. The angle is just 2D, as if you were looking at a radar monitor. Is there a way to track that one object's angle without confusing it with any other objects? And is there a way to do so with sub-degree accuracy? What's the best technology to use here? Sounds like GPS isn't the way to go when real-time accuracy is a concern.

Thanks!
Michael

 

How are you getting the objects position? Or is that the question here?

Because once you have the X,Y coordinates at any two times, it’s simple math.

 

There are many technologies possible. Could you be more specific about what you have in mind?
BTW - GPS is useless for tracking anything that is not at the observer's position.
If the object you are tracking is sending the GPS information to you, then it might be possible.

 

Much more information is needed.

We don’t even know how you detect the object, how can we answer your question without knowing that? Or were you hoping we would tell you that?


What is the object?
Distance away?
Line of sight?
Can you put electronics on the object?

Tell us, in detail what you are trying to do. Not “determine the angle of an object”. More like” I am trying to track the flight of the tennis ball at Wimbledon using a video camera placed at the line judge’s position.”

Bob

 

Hi all. Suppose I wanted to accurately track the angle of a moving object from a point in space. The angle is just 2D, as if you were looking at a radar monitor. Is there a way to track that one object's angle without confusing it with any other objects? And is there a way to do so with sub-degree accuracy? What's the best technology to use here? Sounds like GPS isn't the way to go when real-time accuracy is a concern.

Thanks!
Michael

If you know the object's velocity (i.e. it reports that to you) then in principle you could compute trajectory from two measurements of its distance and direction, but of course the "angle" (relative to whatever) is likely a continuously varying quantity so requires continual recalculation.

 

Hi M,
One way is to fit a transponder to the remote object, that's if the remote object is part of the project.

What is the minimum and maximum range of the remote object, also is the Base station moving or stationary. ... etc.

E

 

To boil it down,
many answers are possible....
Basically you can put something on the object or bounce something off the object

It all depends upon the things the others have mentioned,
give us more details and we can try to help

 

With 2D you can do it with simple vectors. 3D gets a little more mathmatically challenging but has been solved almost 200 years ago.