Tracking and determining orientation of object using coordinate transformation means, system and process
US3983474A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 21, 1975 |
| Grant date | Sep 28, 1976 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 21, 1995 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S13/422
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An electromagnetic field which nutates about a pointing vector is used to both track or locate a remote object in addition to determining the relative orientation of the object. Apparatus for generating such a field includes mutually orthogonal dipole radiators, defining a reference coordinate frame, and circuitry for supplying excitations, such that the maximum intensity vector of a vector field produced by these excitations in the radiators nutates about a mean axis or axis of nutation which is called the pointing vector direction of the field. A pointing coordinate frame has the x-axis coincident with the pointing vector and the y-axis in the x-y plane of the reference frame. Mutually orthogonal sensors at the object sense the field and establish a sense coordinate frame, which can be coincident with the coordinate frame of the remote body. Coordinate transformer means, system and process are used in connection with determining the pointing and angular position of the sense frame with respect to the reference frame. A first error signal relating the sense frame to the pointing frame is transformed into a second error signal relating the sense frame to the reference frame. This s…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.