METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PASSIVE DETERMINATION OF TARGET DATA

A method and apparatus for passive determination of target data (R, K, V) associated with a target from measured and estimated bearing angles. The measured bearing angles (4) are determined by a sonar receiving installation (2) by directionally selective reception of sound waves which are emitted or sent from a target, and the estimated bearing angles are determined from estimated positions of the target. The bearing angle differences from estimated and measured bearing angles are minimized iteratively over a plurality of processing cycles, and a position of the target, on which the minimum is based, is determined as the optimized solution (12). Furthermore, limit values (10) are defined for the target data (R, K, V) to be determined, in order to exclude unrealistic target data as solutions. However, because the optimized solution (12) from the optimization method (6) does not converge with the actual solution if the limit values (10) are chosen erroneously, an error handling process (14) for identification and correction of incorrect limit values (10) is carried out.