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. 05, 2007
Filed:
Apr. 29, 2004
David D. Needelman, Torrance, CA (US);
Richard A. Fowell, Rolling Hills Estates, CA (US);
Peter C. Lai, Alhambra, CA (US);
Yeong-wei A. Wu, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Rongsheng LI, Hacienda Heights, CA (US);
David D. Needelman, Torrance, CA (US);
Richard A. Fowell, Rolling Hills Estates, CA (US);
Peter C. Lai, Alhambra, CA (US);
Yeong-Wei A. Wu, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Rongsheng Li, Hacienda Heights, CA (US);
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A vehicle () including a control system () is used for controlling vehicle attitude or angular velocity (). The processor () is coupled to a star sensor or tracker () and a memory () that may include a star catalog (), and an exclusion list (). The exclusion list (), a list of stars to be temporarily excluded from consideration when determining attitude or angular velocity or relative alignment of star sensors or trackers, is calculated on board. Such a calculation prevents the necessity for a costly, periodic, ground calculation and upload of such data. By manipulating the star catalog, or sub-catalogs derived from said catalog, based upon the exclusion list (), measurements of such excluded stars are prevented from corrupting the attitude or angular velocity or alignment estimates formulated on board. The system uses multiple stayout zones for excluding stars from the exclusion list. A central exclusion zone excludes all stars while a second or more exclusion zones allow some stars to be used in the attitude determination