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. 10, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2009
Bogdan S. Borowy, San Diego, CA (US);
Bogdan S. Borowy, San Diego, CA (US);
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method are provided for determining the position of a vehicle on a guideway. For operation, the vehicle carries a magnetic array having a wavelength 'λ'. Further, the guideway includes a propulsion winding for carrying a propulsion current. Also, the guideway is provided with a position winding that has the same wavelength 'λ' and includes two helical wires that are displaced from each other by “λ/4”. Importantly, a transmitter is located on the vehicle for emitting a position current that interacts with the position winding to generate a return signal from each helical wire. Also, the system includes a processor for receiving and evaluating the return signals to determine the position of the vehicle on the guideway. As a result, the determined position is used to maximize the interaction of the propulsion current with the magnetic array for propulsion of the vehicle.