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:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 02, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
David J. Hepner, Elkton, MD (US);
Thomas E. Harkins, Joppa, MD (US);
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army, Washington, DC (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
F41G 7/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
F41G 7/00 ;
Abstract
A method to determine the direction in which a spinning projectile is traveling. A solar sensor array on the projectile is used to calculate the orientation of the axis of rotation of the projectile with respect to a known solar field and a magnetometer sensor array is used to calculate the orientation of the axis of rotation of the projectile with respect to a known magnetic field, both fields being represented by respective vectors having magnitude and direction. With the known and calculated orientations, the pointing direction may be obtained by vector combination.