System and method for reducing attitude errors for exoatmospheric devices
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorsZygmunt Zubkow, Jeff Hegg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An exoatmospheric device comprises an inertial measurement unit comprising a spin axis gyroscope adapted to obtain data regarding angular rotation of the exoatmospheric device about a spin axis, and at least one off-spin axis gyroscope adapted to obtain data regarding angular oscillation of the spin axis. The exoatmospheric device further comprises a processing unit coupled to the inertial measurement unit and adapted to detect attitude error by analyzing correlations between the measured rotation about the spin axis and the measured angular oscillation of the spin axis.
Claims6
A method of compensating for attitude error in an exoatmospheric device, the method comprising:
- receiving spin data from a spin axis gyroscope in the exoatmospheric device, wherein the spin data contains angular rotation measurements of the exoatmospheric device about the spin axis, the exoatmospheric device spinning in complete rotations about the spin axis;
- receiving angular oscillation data from at least one off-spin axis gyroscope, wherein the angular oscillation data contains angular rotation measurements of angular oscillation of the spin axis of the exoatmospheric device;
- analyzing a correlation between the spin data and the angular oscillation data to detect attitude error;
- and
- adjusting the attitude of the exoatmospheric device by adjusting navigation calculations when attitude error is detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.