Moog Gmbh

Crossbow Technology, Inc.

Memsic Transducer Systems Co., Ltd.

Darren S Liccardo

Ralph Michael Kling

Michael J Grimmer

Martin Albert Turon

Qiyue Zhang

Michael A Horton

John J James

Anthony Malerich

Walter K Stockwell

Martin A Turon

A low power method for determining whether a cargo destined for air transport is in a flying state having the steps of: providing a housing for attachment to a cargo the housing having: an accelerometer for detecting a linear acceleration, a gyroscope for detecting an angular rate, a controller measuring a linear acceleration with the accelerometer, measuring an angular rate with the gyroscope, providing the measured linear acceleration and angular rate to the controller, and generating a flight status output signal indicating whether the housing is in a flying state as a function of the linear acceleration signal and angular rate signal.

Real-time aircraft status detection system and method

A navigation system repeatedly determines a GNSS heading for the vehicle based on GNSS data received from the GNSS receiver, and repeatedly determines an inertial heading for the vehicle based on data received from an inertial measurement unit. The navigation system repeatedly sets the inertial heading to a verified GNSS heading and then provides the set inertial heading as input to a recursive feedback algorithm. The recursive feedback algorithm receives additional inputs indicating the vehicle's angular displacement or acceleration and outputs an updated inertial heading. The navigation system compares the subsequently determined GNSS headings with the updated inertial heading. If the two headings are different, the navigation system sets the GNSS heading to the updated inertial or 180 degree reverse of the GNSS heading.

Vehicle heading validation using inertial measurement unit

An antenna assembly for receiving the GPS signals in a global positioning system (GPS) receiver module automatically orients the antenna to better receive the GPS signals. The antenna is oriented by a positioner (e.g., a counterweight) that automatically rotates a frame on which the antenna is mounted. The GPS receiver module may also include multiple antennas oriented in different directions to maintain good reception of the GPS signals in any position. The multiple antennas are oriented in a manner so that the poor reception range an antenna is covered by other antennas. Signals from multiple antennas may be combined or chosen for processing by a GPS processor. Also, multiple GPS receiver modules may be deployed in close proximity so that wireless communication between the GPS receiver modules may be established.

Enhancing reception of signals in global positioning system (GPS) receiver module

A system and method for more accurately and robustly determining the heading of a vehicle by taking measurements of angle rates using rate sensors mounted on a movable mechanical assembly. In a quasi-static state of the vehicle, the mechanical assembly is rotated around axes perpendicular to the tangent plane of the Earth, and angle rates are measured by the rate sensors at different rotational angles of the mechanical assembly. The measurements of the angle rates are then computed to determine the initial heading of the vehicle relative to the true north of the Earth in the quasi-static state of the vehicle. After determining the initial heading, navigation state propagation is performed to determine the heading of the vehicle in non-quasi-static state of the vehicle. By taking measurements of the rate sensors at different rotation angles and performing computation, the heading of the vehicle relative to the Earth's true north can be determined using less accurate angle sensors.

Heading determination using sensors mounted on rotatable assembly

Enhancing reception of signals in global positioning systems (GPS) receiver module

An antenna assembly for receiving the GPS signals in a global positioning system (GPS) receiver module automatically orients the antenna to better receive the GPS signals. The antenna is oriented by a positioner (e.g., a counterweight) that automatically rotates a frame on which the antenna is mounted. The GPS receiver module may also include multiple antennas oriented in different directions to maintain good reception of the GPS signals in any position. The multiple antennas are oriented in a manner so that the poor reception range an antenna is covered by other antennas. Signals from multiple antennas may be combined or chosen for processing by a GPS processor. Also, multiple GPS receiver modules may be deployed in close proximity so that wireless communication between the GPS receiver modules may be established. The GPS receiver modules with good GPS signals reception may determine its location and send its location information to the GPS modules with poor or no signal reception. The GPS receiver module receiving the location information from other GPS receiver modules may take the location as indicated in the received location information as its location or process the location information further to determine its location.

A system and method for more accurately and robustly estimating navigation state of a vehicle by adaptively processing signals from an inertial sensor assembly and other sensors. A navigation system receives signals from two or more sensors to evaluate and correct the attitude estimated by an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The navigation system selects sensor signals from the other sensor assemblies and processes the selected sensor signals in conjunction with estimates from the inertial navigation module to obtain more accurate estimates of the attitude. The parameters and conditions for using certain sensor signals may be adjusted based on the characteristics and configuration of the vehicle.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Darren S Liccardo