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. 17, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 15, 2002
Louis S. McTamaney, Los Gatos, CA (US);
United Defense, LP, Arlington, VA (US);
Abstract
A high-resolution path marking system utilized with inertial navigation systems for land vehicles. The system uses radio frequency tags or “beacons” to mark a route to be traversed by manned or unmanned follower vehicles. The RF tags serve as references to correct time and distance traveled dependent errors that accumulate in the follower vehicle's inertial navigation system. The position of each tag is accurately encoded into its memory using a manned path marking vehicle that “proofs” the route in advance of the follower vehicles. Since the inertial navigation system for the path marking vehicle and for the follower vehicles are synchronized at the start of the route, any errors accumulated in the followers' INS with respect to the path marking vehicle are eliminated at the prescribed intervals where the RF tags are placed. The path marking vehicle can lay the route days, weeks, or even months in advance of use by the follower vehicles. Once the path is marked, it can be reused many times by the follower vehicles without further human intervention. Further, the short-range, ground based RF tags used in this method are less susceptible to jamming, and the tags are covert, i.e. the tags are small and transmit only when interrogated by a secure query signal.