The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 28, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 18, 1998
George C Hughes, Manhattan Beach, CA (US);
Michael J Wehner, Hawthorne, CA (US);
Mark L Hanson, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
D Hobson Lane, Hermosa Beach, CA (US);
Paul A Lavoie, Manhattan Beach, CA (US);
Warren H Taylor, Gardena, CA (US);
Bryan H Kang, La Mirada, CA (US);
Paul Steiner, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Arnold J Galloway, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Michael Busby, Reno, NV (US);
TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
A method that allows a space vehicle to determine navigation information represented by the contents of a state vector. The method includes the steps of intermittently receiving navigation signals, initializing the state vector with an estimate of the navigation information, and generating a predicted state vector that represents the predicted values for the navigation information after a predetermined time increment in the future. The method further determines whether a navigation signal has been received within a predetermined window of time from a navigation beacon. If a navigation signal has been received, the method updates the state vector and the contents of the state vector are propagated forward in time to provide an estimate of the navigation information after a predetermined time increment. In some instances, however, a navigation signal is not received within the predetermined window of time. In such situations, the method simply propagates the contents of the predicted state vector forward in time. Thus, the predicted state vector maintains an estimate of the current navigation information even in the absence of a navigation signal.