Radio position tracker

I would like to build a tracker using a radio transmitter and a series of antennae. The example is a set of 40 antennae in a line spaced 5 meters apart. This would track the progress of an object that will have a very low powered transmitter attached to it moving along the path of the antennae.

I want the ability to measure the signal strength at all of the antennae at the same time, or almost instantly so that the position of the object can be shown on a display/graph in real time.

How would I be able to do this without resorting to a measuring device for each antenna?

 

Thank you in advance!

I think what you want is something like what "radars('')":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolocation use. What specific application are you going to use this for? What is the object to detect made for? With regards to the antenna, how much power would it radiate? its orientation? etc. How do you plan in showing the objects position in real time? By the intensity of the signal? I think there are a lot to think when it comes to RF being used for locating an objects' movements.

I think RADARs use a transmitter and usually a single receiver. What I am wanting is to use a very low powered transmitter with an omnidirectional antenna. On the receive side I would want quite a few antennas where I can locate the object by how much signal is received from the antennas- closest one being the one that receives the most signal.

I need a circuit that would calculate the power received at each antenna and output it to... a laptop, or a set of LEDs that will display the results received from each antenna. See attached images.

You don't mention speed, which determines the band width the system will need. Do you need a resolution less than 5m, or is 5m sufficient. Additionally, what frequency are you using. Does the target pass the antenna array at a fixed distance.
If you only need resolution related to the antenna spacing, you could use an array of yagi antenna pointing out wards towards the path of the target, the directivity will provide a good signal as the transmit antenna passes each one. If you used say 2.4Ghz, then the antenna are quite small. Provided you have sufficient transmit power, a simple schottky diode detector ( e.g. http://www.skyworksinc.com/uploads/documents/SMSA7630_061_203200B.pdf) , amplifier and comparator may be sufficient to get your signal. If you scanned the output of the antenna array at a fast enough rate, and latched the comparator outputs into a parallel to serial converter, you end up with a digital bit stream representing the position. The antenna and detector could be done on a PCB at 2.4GHz, for example. It still leaves the issues of getting the signal from up to a maximum of 200m away, would you use a wired system.
If you need a resolution much less than the antenna spacing, then the situation changes, you will need to process an analog signal from each antenna, which will need to be omnidirectional or possibly half wave dipoles.
Without knowing more details, hard to say,
cheers,
Richard