Rapid high resolution position sensor for auto steering

A position sensor for sensing the rotational position of a steering wheel comprising;

• a housing, a hub, a code disk, a turn ring and a sensing device having PC board;
• wherein the housing holds said hub, code disk, turn ring and PC board therein;
• and
• wherein the code disk is fixed to the hub and includes markings arranged around its circumference, the markings forming unique patterns over predetermined portions of the circumference representing a plurality of different rotational positions around the code disk, said sensing device perceiving the unique patterns of markings and substantially simultaneously identifying the different rotational positions of the code disk at a given instant, without requiring stored information about any previous positions of the code disk.

A rotational position sensor comprising:

• a housing holding a hub, a code disk and a turn ring, wherein the code disk is rigidly fixed to the hub so as to have the same rotational axis thereof and including markings thereon to identify its rotational position;
• wherein the turn ring is placed around the hub and is rotatable relative thereto, the turn ring having a rotational axis different from that of the hub, and wherein the turn ring indicates whether the code disk has undergone a full revolution;
• and
• wherein the rate of rotation of the turn ring and the hub are different.

A rotational position sensor for sensing a rotational position of a rotating object, comprising:

• a hub;
• a code disk attached to said hub, said code disk including a circumference with markings arranged therearound, said markings forming unique patterns over a predetermined portion of the circumference, said unique patterns representing unique rotational positions;
• a housing for holding said hub and said code disk;
• and
• a sensing device including a PC board having a photodetector and a light source shining light past said markings onto said photodetector, thereby reading the light and dark images to identify one of the unique patterns and the rotational position of the code disk without requiring stored information about any previous positions of the code disk, and said PC board being a flexible ribbon cable having a main panel and a senor panel with a microprocessor being located on the main panel and said photodetector being located on the sensor panel.

A rotational position sensor for sensing a rotational position of a rotating object, comprising:

• a hub;
• a code disk attached to said hub, said code disk including a circumference with markings arranged therearound, said markings forming a unique pattern over a predetermined portion of the circumference, said unique pattern representing a unique rotational position identified by a sensing device;
• a housing for holding said hub and said code disk;
• and
• a turn ring having gear teeth that mesh with stationary gear teeth of the housing, said turn ring cooperates with a plurality of sensors for determining the number of revolutions of said code disk.