Global navigation satellite system beam based attitude determination
AssigneeInterstate Electronics Corporation
InventorSteven B. Alexander
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a technique to estimate at least a portion of an attitude, such as an azimuth angle from true North, based on beam angles from a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) to space vehicle locations. Other attitude information such as roll and/or pitch can also be estimated. The at least portion of the attitude can be provided with or without an additional sensor, such as a compass or magnetometer, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), or the like. An attitude estimate can be useful because oftentimes the attitude of an object can vary from its track or velocity direction.
Claims20
An apparatus configured to determine at least one of a heading, roll, or pitch of an attitude of an object, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of radio frequency (RF) downconverters configured to receive controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) signals and to downconvert the received signals, wherein the CRPA is attached to the object for which the heading, roll, or pitch is to be determined;
- a beamformer configured to generate one or more antenna patterns for downconverted received signals corresponding to signals received by the CRPA, wherein the beamformer is configured to use downcoverted received signals in generating the one or more antenna patterns;
- a processor configured:
- to associate instances of observed signal strength of signals at various observed beam angles of the CRPA with physical locations of a plurality of space vehicles, wherein the plurality of space vehicles comprises sources of the signals;
- and
- to determine the at least one of the heading, roll, or pitch of the object based at least partly on an orientation of the object with respect to the observed beam angles.
An electronically-implemented method of determining at least one of a heading, roll, or pitch of an attitude of an object, the method comprising:
- downconverting received controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) radio frequency (RF) signals to generate downconverted received signals, wherein the CRPA is attached to the object for which the heading, roll, or pitch is to be determined;
- generating, using a beamformer, one or more antenna patterns for downconverted received signals corresponding to signals received by the CRPA;
- associating instances of observed signal strength of signals at various observed beam angles of the CRPA with physical locations of a plurality of space vehicles, wherein the plurality of space vehicles comprise sources of the signals;
- and
- determining the at least one of the heading, roll, or pitch of the object based at least partly on an orientation of the object with respect to the observed beam angles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.