Kalman Patents (Class 701/480)
  • Patent number: 11566568
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for increasing EGR delivered to an engine. In one example, a method may include determining an EVO timing set point and an external EGR setpoint in parallel, based on an inverse model. The EVO timing may be adjusted based on a combination of the EVO timing setpoint and an EGR cylinder balancing feedback loop, thereby varying internal EGR to the engine to supplement external EGR.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Brien Lloyd Fulton, Michiel J. Van Nieuwstadt
  • Patent number: 11292699
    Abstract: A remote operation terminal is provided with: a terminal-side control device configured so as to be capable of communicating with a control device, the terminal-side control device being a control unit for controlling the actuation of the remote operation terminal; a suspended load movement operation tool, which is a first operation unit for remotely operating a crane device; and a reference change operation tool, which is a second operation unit for setting an operation direction reference of the suspended load movement operation tool in relation to a vehicle direction reference of a crane. The terminal-side control device calculates the actuation direction of the crane device in relation to the operation of the suspended load movement operation tool, on the basis of a setting value of the reference change operation tool, and transmits the actuation direction to the control device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: TADANO LTD.
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Hayashi
  • Patent number: 10996059
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for estimating the movement of an object (1) moving in an environment (?) and an ambient magnetic field, the method being characterised in that it includes the steps of: (a) Acquisition: by inertial measurement means (24) fixed with respect to said object (1), of at least one component of an acceleration and/or an angular velocity of the object (1), designated inertial datum; by magnetic measurement means (20) fixed with respect to said object (1), of at least one component of the magnetic field and/or an i-th derivative of the magnetic field, at the magnetic measurement means (20), designated magnetic datum; by optical acquisition means (26) fixed with respect to said object (1), of consecutive images of the environment (?), designated vision datum; (b) Estimation by the data processing means (21, 31, 41) of at least one component of the movement of said object (1) using the inertial datum, as well as the magnetic datum and/or the vision datum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: SYSNAV
    Inventors: David Vissiere, Mathieu Hillion, David Caruso
  • Patent number: 10921462
    Abstract: A device implementing a system for estimating device location includes at least one processor configured to receive a first and second set of signals at a sampling interval, each set corresponding to location data. For each sampling period defined by the sampling interval, the at least one processor is configured to obtain first sensor data corresponding to device motion during the sampling period, obtain second sensor data corresponding to atmospheric pressure sampled at a beginning and end of the sampling period, calculate a change in altitude based on a difference in the atmospheric pressure at the beginning and end of the sampling period, and estimate a device state based on the first sensor data and change in altitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Isaac T. Miller, Changlin Ma
  • Patent number: 10877059
    Abstract: A positioning apparatus includes: a reference device configured to provide a measured current motion angle of a vehicle; an inertial sensor configured to provide a current input angular rate of the vehicle and associated with at least one inertial sensor behavior parameter dependent on inertial sensor temperature; a temperature sensor configured to provide an input temperature variation of the inertial sensor on a time interval; and a digital estimator configured to recursively computing an estimated current motion angle of the vehicle and at least one previously estimated inertial sensor behavior parameter as function of: the measured current motion angle, a previously estimated motion angle, the current input angular rate, and the input temperature variation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Nicola Matteo Palella, Leonardo Colombo
  • Patent number: 10784841
    Abstract: A control system for a work vehicle includes a controller, a processor, and a memory that causes the processor to receive, via a sensor assembly, sensor signals and convert the sensor signals into a plurality of entries of a full measurement vector. The memory devices causes the processor to determine a first state vector using IMU Kalman filter, update a first subset of entries the full state vector, determine a second state vector using a spatial positioning Kalman filter, update a second subset of entries the full state vector based on the second state vector, determine a third state vector using a vehicle Kalman filter, update a third subset of entries of the plurality of entries of the full state vector based on the third state vector, and control movement of the work vehicle based on at least one of the first state vector, the second state vector, the third state vector, and the full state vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignees: CNH Industrial America LLC, Autonomous Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew D. Berkemeier, Jeffrey Lee Ferrin, John Arthur Mitsuru Petersen
  • Patent number: 10699435
    Abstract: A vehicular positioning system utilizing multiple optical cameras having contiguous fields of view for reading coded markers having pre-determined positions for determining the position of vehicle inside a structure with a high degree of accuracy. The vehicle positioning system provides for the direct installation and use of a positioning apparatus on a vehicle with a limited number of coded markers to determine the vehicle's position to within millimeter level accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Dmitry Vitalievich Tatarnikov, Leonid Valerianovich Edelman, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Pimenov, Michail Nikolaevich Smirnov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich Penkrat
  • Patent number: 10401176
    Abstract: A method of determining the real time state of a machine includes receiving acceleration and angular rate of motion measurements from IMU's mounted on components of a machine. Fusing signals received from the IMU's with separate Kalman filter modules by combining an acceleration measurement and an angular rate of motion measurement from each IMU to estimate an output joint angle for the component on which the IMU is mounted. Estimated and measured values of the output joint angle for each component are combined, a kinematic equation is solved to determine a real time value for at least one of position, velocity, and acceleration of the component at successive timesteps, and the determined real time values are applied to control movement of each component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Adam Martin Nackers, Russell Aaron Schloss, Roberto Martinez, Corey Lee Gorman
  • Patent number: 10235769
    Abstract: Method for determining position of a mobile device having an imaging device includes obtaining an image of a mark on a known-position object from the imaging device, the mark having an encoded position, decoding the mark to derive data about the position of the mark using a database of marks and their positions, and analyzing appearance of the mark in the image in combination with the derived data about the position of the mark to determine the position of the mobile device. Mark appearance analysis may involve analyzing an angle between an imaging direction of the imaging device and a surface of the mark.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: Vortex Intellectual Property Holding LLC
    Inventor: Cyril Houri
  • Patent number: 9625262
    Abstract: A navigation system includes at least one inertial sensor configured to detect motion of the system and generate inertial data; at least one aiding device configured to generate aiding device measurement data; at least one processing unit configured to generate an un-smoothed navigation solution inclusive of navigation state variable error resets based on the inertial data and the aiding device measurement data; wherein the at least one processing unit is further configured to sum the state variable error resets into a cumulative sum of the state variable error resets; wherein the at least one processing unit is further configured to high pass filter the cumulative sum of the state variable error resets; and wherein the at least one processing unit is further configured to subtract the high pass filtered cumulative sum of the state variable error resets from the un-smoothed navigation solution to generate a smoothed navigation solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Merrill Buck, Lawrence Charles Vallot, Scott I. Snyder
  • Patent number: 9037411
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for selecting landmarks for navigation. In one embodiment, a system comprises an IMU that provides inertial measurements for a vehicle and at least one image sensor that acquires measurements of the vehicle's environment. The system also comprises a processing unit that calculates a navigation solution for the vehicle based on the inertial measurements, identifies a plurality of landmarks in the acquired measurements, and identifies a plurality of usable landmarks from the plurality of landmarks. The processing unit also selects a subset of useable landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks such that the subset of landmarks has a smaller dilution of precision (DOP) than other possible subsets of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, and calculates an updated navigation solution from the subset of landmarks. The DOP is an amplification factor of measurement errors derived from the geometry of the subset of useable landmarks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Vibhor L. Bageshwar, Yunqian Ma, Shrikant Rao
  • Patent number: 9024784
    Abstract: In a method for warning a driver of a vehicle, the position of the vehicle on the roadway is determined. For the determined position of the vehicle, data relating to a curved roadway course in the area ahead of the vehicle are obtained and data relating to a self-motion of the vehicle are obtained using a driving dynamics sensor. The curved roadway in the area ahead of the vehicle is divided into at least two zones of criticality as a function of the data relating to the curved roadway course and the data relating to the self-motion, wherein each zone of criticality is assigned an assessment which assesses the driving behavior of the vehicle within the respective zone of criticality, and the assessments are outputted to the vehicle driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignees: Audi AG, Audi Electronics Venture GmbH
    Inventors: Christina Gackstatter, Markus Popken, Jessica Reinhold
  • Patent number: 9020776
    Abstract: An inclination angle compensation system for determining an inclination angle of a machine is disclosed. The inclination angle compensation system may have a non-gravitational acceleration estimator configured to estimate a non-gravitational acceleration of a machine based on an estimated inclination angle and an acceleration output from a forward acceleration sensor. The inclination angle compensation system may also have an inclination angle sensor corrector configured to receive an inclination angle output from an inclination angle sensor, determine an inclination angle sensor acceleration based on the inclination angle output, and calculate a corrected inclination angle of the machine based on the non-gravitational acceleration and the inclination angle sensor acceleration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventor: Paul Russell Friend
  • Patent number: 8996311
    Abstract: A navigation system for use with moving vehicles includes target points proximate to a rendezvous site located on a first moving vehicle. One or more transmitters associated with the target points broadcast time-tagged target point positioning information. A navigation unit on a second moving vehicle utilizes a camera with known properties to capture images that include the target points. The navigation unit processes the image that corresponds in time to the positioning information, to determine the relative position and orientation of the rendezvous site at the second vehicle. The navigation unit utilizes the relative position and orientation and an absolute position and orientation of the rendezvous site calculated from the target position information and calculates an absolute position and orientation corresponding to the second vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: NovAtel Inc.
    Inventors: Kristian Morin, Michael Bobye, Sandy Kennedy
  • Patent number: 8942923
    Abstract: Method of determining navigation parameters for a carrier by a hybridization device comprising a Kalman filter (3) formulating a hybrid navigation solution on the basis of inertial measurements calculated by a virtual platform (2) and of raw measurements of signals emitted by a constellation of satellites delivered by a satellite positioning system (GNSS), characterized in that it comprises, the steps of: —determination, for each satellite, of at least one likelihood ratio (Ir, Ir?) between a hypothesis regarding a fault of a given nature of the satellite and a hypothesis regarding an absence of fault of the satellite, —declaration, of a fault of a given nature on a satellite as a function of the likelihood ratio (Ir, Ir?) associated with this fault and of a threshold value, —estimation of the impact of the declared fault on the hybrid navigation solution, and ?correction of the hybrid navigation solution as a function of the estimation of the impact of the declared fault.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: Sagem Defense Securite
    Inventors: Didier Riedinger, Houcine Chafouk
  • Patent number: 8922426
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and system are provided for position estimation in a geo-location system. For example, the method can include receiving a plurality of position measurements from a respective plurality of satellites in a global navigation satellite system. From the plurality of position measurements, a position measurement with a maximum pseudo-range residual value can be selected. A position uncertainty estimate can be determined based on the position measurement with the maximum pseudo-range residual value. Further, a position estimation algorithm can receive the position uncertainty estimate as an input, thereby improving position estimation of the geo-location system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Russell Smith, Romain Clement
  • Patent number: 8862396
    Abstract: A positioning device including a movement measuring unit for measuring a relative positional change and a passing position calculation control unit for continuing measurement of the positional change of the movement measuring unit during movement, being given position data of any first point at the first point on a moving route excluding a start point, and determining position data of a point which has been passed before arrival at the first point on the basis of the given position data of the first point and data of the positional change continuously measured by the movement measuring unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masao Sambongi
  • Patent number: 8855929
    Abstract: The initialization of an inertial navigation system is performed using information obtained from an image of an object. Positional and orientational information about the object in a global reference frame and positional and orientational information about the camera relative to the object are obtained from the image. Positional and orientational information for the camera in the global reference frame is determined along with a transformation matrix between inertial sensor reference frame and a navigation coordinate frame. The inertial navigation system is initialized using the positional and orientational information for the camera, the transformation matrix and the velocity of the camera when the object was imaged, i.e., zero. Using the initialized data with measurements from the inertial sensors the position of the mobile platform may be updated during navigation and provided, e.g., on a digital map. Inertial navigation errors may be corrected using information obtained from images of different objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Gengsheng Zhang, Lionel J. Garin
  • Publication number: 20140278078
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for calibrating a crane for crane geometry. A Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver antenna is disposed on a point along a boom assembly of the crane, the crane configured to pivot about a pivot point. A working arm of the crane is rotated about the pivot point to at least three different positions. Three locations are determined in a geo-referenced coordinate system of the at least three different positions. A location of the pivot point is determined based on the three locations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventor: TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED
  • Patent number: 8825396
    Abstract: A quasi tightly coupled (QTC) aided INS (AINS) process has an inertial navigator system with a loosely-coupled AINS Kalman filter that constructs INS-GNSS position measurements, a GNSS position engine that computes a position fix from observables and an externally provided a priori position and position VCV matrix. An INS position seeding process in which the externally provided a priori position to the GNSS position engine is an antenna position computed from the INS position and attitude solution. An observable subspace constraint (OSC) process computes an OCS matrix that suppress the components of the GNSS position error due to a poor geometry in the GNSS position solution in the IG position measurement constructed by the AINS Kalman filter and that multiplies the OSC matrix and the IG position measurement and measurement model matrix to suppress uncorrected component of the GNSS position error in the IG position measurement and measurement model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Applanix Corporation
    Inventor: Bruno M. Scherzinger
  • Patent number: 8788232
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus that acquires estimated altitude data corresponding to a position based on detection information detected by a sensor at or near the position, and corrects altitude data associated with the position based on the estimated altitude data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Satoshi Suzuno
  • Patent number: 8768558
    Abstract: A vehicle control system having a controller and a spatial database adapted to provide spatial data to the controller at control speed. The spatial data provided from the spatial database to the controller includes images collected from an optical sensor subsystem in addition to other data collected by a variety of sensor types, including a GNSS or inertial measurement system. The spatial data received by the controller from the database forms at least part of the control inputs that the controller operates on to control the vehicle. The advantage provided by the present invention allows control system to “think” directly in terms of spatial location. A vehicle control system in accordance with one particular embodiment of the invention comprises a task path generator, a spatial database, at least one external spatial data receiver, a vehicle attitude compensation module, a position error generator, a controller, and actuators to control the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: AgJunction LLC
    Inventors: David R. Reeve, Andrew John Macdonald, Campbell Robert Morrison
  • Patent number: 8768618
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining a location of a mobile device using a multi-modal Kalman filter are described. According to an example method, a mobile device may maintain multiple approximations of a location of a mobile device. Each approximation includes an estimated geographic location of the mobile device that is determined by filtering a respective subset of location estimates received by the mobile device using a respective Kalman filter, and one of the multiple approximations is designated as an active approximation. The method also involves receiving data indicating an estimate of a geographic location of the mobile device and, based on a distance between the estimate of the geographic location and a given approximation of the multiple approximations, updating the given approximation using the estimate of the geographic location. Additionally, the method involves providing for display a visual indication of an estimated geographic location associated with the active approximation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: David Nicholas Christie, Brian Patrick Williams, Mohammed Waleed Kadous
  • Patent number: 8717009
    Abstract: A real-time calibration system and method for a mobile device having an onboard magnetometer uses an estimator to estimate magnetometer calibration parameters and a magnetic field external to the mobile device (e.g., the earth magnetic field). The calibration parameters can be used to calibrate uncalibrated magnetometer readings output from the onboard magnetometer. The external magnetic field can be modeled as a weighted combination of a past estimate of the external magnetic field and the asymptotic mean of that magnetic field, perturbed by a random noise (e.g., Gaussian random noise). The weight can be adjusted based on a measure of the statistical uncertainty of the estimated calibration parameters and the estimated external magnetic field. The asymptotic mean of the external magnetic field can be modeled as a time average of the estimated external magnetic field. are within the scope of the following claims.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Xiaoyuan Tu
  • Patent number: 8676498
    Abstract: A navigation device is provided herein comprising an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a camera, and a processor. The IMU provides an inertial measurement to the processor and the camera provides at least one image frame to the processor. The processor is configured to determine navigation data based on the inertial measurement and the at least one image frame, wherein at least one feature is extracted from the at least one image frame based on the navigation data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Yunqian Ma, Wesley J. Hawkinson
  • Patent number: 8649977
    Abstract: In a GPS composite navigation apparatus of a configuration having a GPS receiver, variation in an estimated position, an estimated velocity, and an estimated azimuth of a moving body when the moving body is not moving is resolved, and the GPS/INS integrated navigation system with good response characteristics from a stationary state to a moving state. A stationary detector for determining the stationary state of the moving body is provided, and when it is determined to be the stationary state by the stationary detector, a measurement model used for measurement-update of a Kalman filter is changed, while a changed amount of an error covariance matrix by the update is corrected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Furuno Electric Company Limited
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Toda
  • Patent number: 8639441
    Abstract: A vehicle navigation system includes a Kalman filter having a first filter receiving satellite positioning data and a second filter receiving vehicle sensor data. The first filter generates a first state vector estimate and a corresponding first state error covariance matrix. The second filter generates a second state vector estimate and a corresponding second state error covariance matrix. A third filter receives the first and second state vector estimates and the first and second state error covariance matrices, and generates a combined state vector estimate and a corresponding combined state error covariance matrix. A prediction processor generates a predicted state vector estimate and a predicted state error covariance matrix from the combined state vector estimate and the combined state error covariance matrix. The predicted state vector estimate and the predicted state error covariance matrix are provided to the first filter, the second filter, and the third filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Koba Natroshvili, Cornelius Buerkle
  • Patent number: 8626395
    Abstract: A method is provided for processing data in an influencing device, whereby the influencing device is connectable to a vehicle control unit and to a data processing unit. If the influencing device receives a first trigger or a second trigger, the first trigger is checked for a valid assignment to a function implemented in the hardware or software. If there is a valid assignment, the assigned function is started. A first address and/or a second address and/or the value are checked for a valid assignment to a first sub-function or a second sub-function. Depending on the called sub-function, the value is checked and/or manipulated and depending on the result of the check, the checked value and/or the manipulated value are sent by the influencing device to the vehicle control unit and/or to the data processing unit and/or stored in the memory of the influencing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: dSPACE GmbH
    Inventor: Marc Dressler
  • Patent number: 8626441
    Abstract: An enhanced vehicle guidance system comprising a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver and a data processor with a memory component and a computing device. The method of enhancing a vehicle's guidance system may comprise calculating the altitude, latitude, and longitude of a GNSS receiver for each of a plurality of positions; calculating the incline angle between adjacent points; and using the calculated incline angles to infer the attitude of the vehicle at any of the plurality of positions. The attitude may be used to calculated an inertial correction factor to compensate for GNSS position inaccuracies induced as a result of the vehicle rolling and pitching on uneven terrain. The altitude, latitude, longitude, and attitude of the plurality of positions may be stored in the memory such that the system may look-up the attitude for a given position without recalculating the attitude and without using an inertial sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: AGCO Corporation
    Inventor: Paul Matthews
  • Patent number: 8600660
    Abstract: A state is added to a Kalman filter to model GPS multipath errors. The multipath states may be modeled as either a random walk model or a Gauss-Markov process. The choice of the model depends on the characteristics of the multi-path error and the GPS receiver. Adding this state to the Kalman filter to model multipath improves the navigation system's robustness when operating as a deeply integrated system when multipath is present.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Charles T. Bye, Brian W. Schipper
  • Patent number: 8594920
    Abstract: A vehicle relative position estimation apparatus includes: a motional state acquiring unit that acquires vehicle control information for controlling the motional state of a vehicle or the motional state of the vehicle detected by an in-vehicle apparatus of the vehicle, and vehicle control information for controlling the motional state of another vehicle or the motional state of another vehicle detected by an in-vehicle apparatus of another vehicle; a relative position acquiring unit that acquires the relative position detected by the in-vehicle apparatus provided in the vehicle or another vehicle; an estimation unit that receives the vehicle control information or the motional state of the vehicle, and the vehicle control information or the motional state of another vehicle acquired by the motional state acquiring unit and estimates the relative position with a Kalman filter using the relative position acquired by the relative position acquiring unit as the amount of observation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Mitsuhisa Shida
  • Publication number: 20130282275
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting location information using a navigation algorithm are provided. The method includes searching for neighboring Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, receiving, if at least one GPS satellite is detected, pseudo-range information from at least one of the detected GPS satellites and storing the received pseudo-range information, calculating a displacement of a pedestrian terminal based on step detection of a pedestrian, correcting the calculated displacement of the pedestrian terminal using the received pseudo-range information, and measuring the location of the pedestrian terminal is measured using the corrected displacement.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2012
    Publication date: October 24, 2013
    Applicants: SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY R & DB FOUNDATION, Samsung Electronics Co.Ltd.
    Inventors: Kyong-Ha Park, Chan-Gook Park, Hyun-Su Hong, Sung-Min Park, Seung-Hyuck Shin
  • Patent number: 8566032
    Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for estimating a user's altitude with respect to the mean sea level are provided. According to some aspects, the present invention is able to estimate altitude in both open sky as well as in degraded GPS signal environments such as dense urban canyon environments where GPS performance is affected by fewer available satellites and/or multipath error. According to other aspects, the present invention uses data from a pressure sensor to estimate altitude, either with or without the use of GPS aiding data. According to further aspects, estimated altitude is integrated with other types of dead reckoning data to provide user context detection pertaining to changes of altitude.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: CSR Technology Holdings Inc.
    Inventors: Mahesh Chowdhary, Arun Kumar, Manish Sharma, Ashutosh Pande, Mahaveer Jain, Gagan Narula, Chinmay Agarwal, Kolin Paul
  • Patent number: 8566034
    Abstract: An inclinometer using a forward speed, a yaw angle rate, a forward acceleration and external altitude information in order to calculate an inclination angle. The inclinometer performs an automatic calibration of an accelerometer bias. The inclinometer may also perform an automatic calibration of an accelerometer position offset. The external altitude information is not required to be continuous.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited
    Inventor: Peter Van Wyck Loomis
  • Patent number: 8560280
    Abstract: A method for calculating a navigation phase for a carrier, in a navigation system involving terrain correlation, includes determining a navigability map in which each point of interest of an onboard map is associated with a navigability score. The method is applicable to all terrain aided navigation techniques, and allows the consideration of the quality of the onboard maps and terrain sensors used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Christian Louis, Sébastien Reynaud
  • Patent number: 8560234
    Abstract: Embodiments include systems and methods of navigation. In on embodiment, a plurality of position and motion states of a vehicle are estimated. The states may be estimated based on information received from a satellite receiver and an inertial measurement sensor. Estimating the states comprises performing one or more of a plurality of update steps at the rate that information is received from the satellite receiver. The states are estimated at a rate greater than the rate at which the update steps are performed. In one embodiment, the states are estimated using a stepped extended Kalman filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Aaron D. Kahn
  • Patent number: 8548683
    Abstract: A system for controlling a vehicle. The vehicle has a steerable front axle and at least one further steerable axle. The system determining the path of a reference lead point at the front of the vehicle and determining the path of a follow point at the rear of the vehicle. A controller for driving the at least one further steerable axle of the vehicle such that the deviation between the path of the lead point of the vehicle and the follow point is within a predetermined range while the vehicle is in motion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: Cambridge Enterprise Limited
    Inventors: David Cebon, Brian Jujnovich
  • Patent number: 8447518
    Abstract: A current position detector for a vehicle includes: an angular speed sensor; a speed sensor; a GPS receiver; a traveling trajectory estimating element for estimating a relative trajectory based on an orientation change amount and a traveling distance, and for estimating a traveling trajectory based on the relative trajectory and a GPS signal; and an error estimating element for estimating and correcting each error of an angular speed signal, a speed signal and the GPS signal. The error estimating element estimates a gain error of the angular speed signal such that an attachment angle gain error attributed to an attachment angle of the angular speed sensor and an angular speed gain error attributed to a non-linear gain property of the angular speed sensor are independently estimated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hideki Tanino
  • Patent number: 8447443
    Abstract: A computerized system and method for peak-seeking-control that uses a unique Kalman filter design to optimize a control loop, in real time, to either maximize or minimize a performance function of a physical object (“plant”). The system and method achieves more accurate and efficient peak-seeking-control by using a time-varying Kalman filter to estimate both the performance function gradient (slope) and Hessian (curvature) based on direct position measurements of the plant, and does not rely upon modeling the plant response to persistent excitation. The system and method can be naturally applied in various applications in which plant performance functions have multiple independent parameters, and it does not depend upon frequency separation to distinguish between system dimensions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignees: The United States of America as Represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: John J Ryan, Jason L Speyer
  • Patent number: 8374624
    Abstract: Provided is a location measurement method of a mobile node using a predictive filter is provided for improving the location measurement accuracy of the mobile node. The location measurement method of a mobile node detects change of movement pattern of the mobile node, corrects weights of a location measurement period and a predictive filter depending on the change of movement pattern, and compensates a location of the mobile node using the corrected weights of the location measurement period and predictive filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, Information and Communication University
    Inventors: Jin-Serk Baik, Joon-Oo Kim, Yun-Je Oh, Joong-Soo Ma, Myoung-Hwan Seo, Myoung-In Ji, Sung-Chang Choi
  • Publication number: 20130035855
    Abstract: A vehicle navigation system includes a Kalman filter having a first filter receiving satellite positioning data and a second filter receiving vehicle sensor data. The first filter generates a first state vector estimate and a corresponding first state error covariance matrix. The second filter generates a second state vector estimate and a corresponding second state error covariance matrix. A third filter receives the first and second state vector estimates and the first and second state error covariance matrices, and generates a combined state vector estimate and a corresponding combined state error covariance matrix. A prediction processor generates a predicted state vector estimate and a predicted state error covariance matrix from the combined state vector estimate and the combined state error covariance matrix. The predicted state vector estimate and the predicted state error covariance matrix are provided to the first filter, the second filter, and the third filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2012
    Publication date: February 7, 2013
    Inventors: Koba Natroshvili, Cornelius Buerkle
  • Patent number: 8370065
    Abstract: An engine control apparatus which may be employed in automotive vehicles. The engine control apparatus is equipped with at least one of a combustion parameter or a controlled variable arithmetic expression. The combustion parameter arithmetic expression defines combustion conditions of the engine needed to achieve required values of engine output-related values such as exhaust emissions. The controlled variable arithmetic expression defines how to operate actuators for an operation of the engine to meet desired combustion conditions of the engine. The use of the combustion parameter or controlled variable arithmetic expression achieves simultaneous agreement of the engine output-related values with required values without mutual interference between combustion parameters associated with the combustion conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshimitsu Takashima, Koji Ishizuka, Youhei Morimoto, Mitsuhiro Nishimura, Masahiro Asano, Sumitaka Ikeda, Kazuhiro Higuchi, Satoru Sasaki
  • Patent number: 8370064
    Abstract: A system for navigation and tracking may include an inertial navigation system adapted to generate a replica GNSS signal and a global navigation satellite system. The global navigation satellite system may include a module to digitize a GNSS signal received from a constellation of global navigation satellites. A correlator receives the digitized GNSS signal and the replica GNSS signal. The correlator correlates the digitized GNSS signal to the replica GNSS signal to generate a correlated GNSS signal. A coherent integration module coherently integrates the correlated GNSS signal to generate an integrated signal having a predetermined rate. A filter receives the integrated signal and generates a data signal for navigation and tracking. An output device may present the navigation and tracking information based on the data signal, or the navigation and tracking information may be used to provide guidance for a vehicle or may be used to track a target.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Rongsheng Li, Kamran Ghassemi
  • Patent number: 8352171
    Abstract: An auxiliary satellite positioning system is applied to a first satellite positioning apparatus. The auxiliary positioning system includes a detection module, a transmission interface and a positioning module. A second satellite positioning module having a satellite data can be detected by the detection module via a wireless transmission protocol. The satellite data can be transmitted by the transmission interface to the first satellite positioning module from the second satellite positioning module. The satellite data can be used by the positioning module to implement a satellite positioning action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: MiTAC International Corp.
    Inventor: Hung-Yi Lin
  • Patent number: 8311696
    Abstract: An optical tracking vehicle control system includes a controller adapted for computing vehicle guidance signals and a guidance subsystem adapted for receiving the guidance signals from the controller and for guiding the vehicle. An optical movement sensor is mounted on the vehicle in optical contact with a travel surface being traversed by the vehicle. The optical movement sensor is connected to the controller and provides vehicle movement signals thereto for use by the controller in computing vehicle position. The optical movement sensor can be either mounted on a gimbal for movement independent of the vehicle, or, alternatively, multiple optical movement sensors can be provided for detecting yaw movements. GNSS and inertial vehicle position tracking subsystems are also provided. Still further, a method of tracking a vehicle with an optical movement sensor is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Hemisphere GPS LLC
    Inventor: David R. Reeve
  • Publication number: 20120253663
    Abstract: An electronic system for providing personal navigation assistance to a user includes a first mobile electronic device having a first GPS module for generating first GPS data and an INS module for generating INS data, and a second mobile electronic device having a second GPS module for generating second GPS data. A wireless communication link allows for communication of data between the first electronic device and the second electronic device. A processor combines the first GPS data, the second GPS data, and the INS data to produce calculated location data indicative of the location of a user at each of a plurality of times. An output component provides personal navigation assistance to a user based on the calculated location data, such as audio instructions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: MOTOROLA-MOBILITY, INC.
    Inventors: Mohammad Bani Hani, Rog Ady, Francis Forest
  • Patent number: 8260552
    Abstract: System and methods of increasing reliability of determined location information by using two integration filters are provided. An exemplary embodiment integrates inertial navigation system information and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) information in a real time Kalman filter; determines a real time location of the aircraft with the real time Kalman filter based upon the INS information and the GNSS information; delays the GNSS information by an interval; integrates the INS information and the delayed GNSS information in a delay Kalman filter; determines a predictive location of the aircraft with the delay Kalman filter based upon the INS information, the delayed GNSS information, and the interval; and in response to an inaccuracy of the real time location determined from the real time Kalman filter, selects the predictive location determined from the delay Kalman filter as a new real time location of the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Mahesh Jeerage, Fan Liu
  • Patent number: 8185309
    Abstract: An inertial system is provided. The system includes at least one inertial sensor, a processing unit and a plurality of Kalman filters implemented in the processing unit. The Kalman filters receive information from the at least one inertial sensor. At most one of the plurality of Kalman filters has processed zero velocity updates on the last cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth S. Morgan, Helen V. Younskevicius
  • Publication number: 20120123679
    Abstract: Method of determining navigation parameters for a carrier by a hybridization device comprising a Kalman filter (3) formulating a hybrid navigation solution on the basis of inertial measurements calculated by a virtual platform (2) and of raw measurements of signals emitted by a constellation of satellites delivered by a satellite positioning system (GNSS), characterized in that it comprises, the steps of:—determination, for each satellite, of at least one likelihood ratio (Ir, Ir?) between a hypothesis regarding a fault of a given nature of the satellite and a hypothesis regarding an absence of fault of the satellite,—declaration, of a fault of a given nature on a satellite as a function of the likelihood ratio (Ir, Ir?) associated with this fault and of a threshold value,—estimation of the impact of the declared fault on the hybrid navigation solution, and ?correction of the hybrid navigation solution as a function of the estimation of the impact of the declared fault.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventors: Didier Riedinger, Houcine Chafouk
  • Patent number: 8150651
    Abstract: An inclinometer using a speedometer and a forward-looking accelerometer for measuring inclination angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited
    Inventor: Peter Van Wyck Loomis