Patents Examined by Fred H. Mull
  • Patent number: 11435485
    Abstract: A method comprises: obtaining a GPS measurement; obtaining a first IMU measurement; obtaining a second IMU measurement; applying a first particle filter to the GPS measurement and the first IMU measurement to obtain a first position solution; applying a second particle filter to the GPS measurement and the second IMU measurement to obtain a second position solution; calculating a first sensor weight of the first position solution based on a likelihood function; calculating a second sensor weight of the second position solution based on the likelihood function; resampling the first position solution based on the first sensor weight to obtain a first resampled position solution; resampling the second position solution based on the second sensor weight to obtain a second resampled position solution; and calculating a final position estimate based on the GPS measurement, the first resampled position solution, and the second resampled position solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
    Inventors: Jay W. McDaniel, Mark B. Yeary, Hjalti H. Sigmarsson, Brian M. Sun
  • Patent number: 11422224
    Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments for determining a location of a device based on phase differences of a signal received from the device. In some embodiments, expected phase differences for signals transmitted from a plurality of regions are determined. The expected phase differences are those differences of the signal when received at each of a plurality of receive elements of a receiving device. By comparing phase differences of a signal received from the device to the expected phase differences, a location of the device is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Juniper Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Neal Dante Castagnoli
  • Patent number: 11422270
    Abstract: A GNSS data collection system includes a pole mounted GNSS receiver and inclination sensors. A data collection module provides a data collection graphical user interface (GUI) visible on a hand-held data collector computer. The data collector computer is communicably coupled to the GNSS receiver and receives three-dimensional location data and inclination data for the range pole in real-time. A virtual level component uses the inclination data to display on the GUI real-time tilt information in the form of a virtual bubble level indicator. The inclination data and height of the range pole are used to calculate and display horizontal distance and direction to level the GNSS receiver, using: incline=sqrt(xtilt*xtilt+ytilt*ytilt) where, xtilt=the inclination data for the range pole along the x axis, ytilt=the inclination data for the range pole along the y axis, and horizontaldistancefromlevel=rh*sin(incline) where, rh=the height of the range pole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Carlson Software, Inc.
    Inventors: Halvard Beruit Teigland, Jesus Latova, William C. Herter
  • Patent number: 11409005
    Abstract: A Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver that includes a satellite signal generator generating signal data for a signal that is not being tracked by the receiver. The receiver includes a satellite signal generator running an algorithm to process first and second received signals to produce a software-synthesized satellite signal, and the generated signal data is used to correct bias or is communicated to a spaced-apart GNSS receiver or used for onboard positioning calculations. The satellite constellation may be the Galileo constellation, with the first and second signals being E5A and E5B signals tracked by the receiver and the generated third signal being an E5AltBOC signal. With a half-a-cycle bias resolution technique, the satellite signal generator generates synthetic E5AltBOC data of high quality. For a receiver, which physically tracks E5AltBOC, synthetic E5AltBOC may be used to monitor polarity of a physically tracked E5AltBOC and correct it if error is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Trimble Inc.
    Inventor: Gleb Aleksandrovich Zyryanov
  • Patent number: 11409004
    Abstract: An electronic device includes a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) reception circuit configured to receive a first signal having a first frequency and a second signal having a second frequency; a wireless communication circuit configured to support cellular communication or short-range communication; a processor operably connected to the GNSS reception circuit and the wireless communication circuit; and a memory operably connected to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that enable the processor to perform operations when the instructions are executed, the operations including receiving the first signal using the GNSS reception circuit; receiving the second signal using the GNSS reception circuit; receiving at least one third signal using the wireless communication circuit; determining existence of a multi-path state, based at least on the first signal and the second signal; and selecting at least one of the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal in order to determine a l
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Inventors: Kihyuk Lee, Jeongmin Park
  • Patent number: 11378697
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and techniques for mitigating the impact of attenuated satellite signals received at mobile devices. A mobile device receives multiple signals from a single satellite on different carrier frequencies. The mobile device calculates two pseudorange measurements, each pseudorange measurement from a different signal of the multiple signals. The mobile device calculates the difference between the two pseudorange measurements, and if the difference exceeds a first threshold and the first pseudorange measurement is larger than the second pseudorange measurement, the mobile device marks the first pseudorange measurement as impaired. If the difference exceeds a second threshold and the second pseudorange measurement is larger than the first pseudorange measurement, the second pseudorange measurement is marked as impaired. The impaired measurements may be weighted or excluded from use in calculating a position of the mobile device or in another pseudorange measurement based calculation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Jordan Cookman, Krishnaranjan Rao, Sandeep Padmanabhan
  • Patent number: 11372116
    Abstract: An electronic device includes a GPS unit, a GPS information acquisition unit, a sensor information acquisition unit, and a reception condition determination unit. The GPS unit receives a radio wave from at least one of a plurality of positioning satellites. The GPS information acquisition unit acquires ephemeris information by the GPS unit and acquires satellite arrangement information of each of the plurality of positioning satellites acquiring the ephemeris information. The sensor information acquisition unit acquires geographical condition information of a current location at which the electronic device is present. The reception condition determination unit identifies the number of positioning satellites that the receiving unit can capture at the current location among the plurality of positioning satellites acquiring the ephemeris information based on the geographical condition information of the current location and the satellite arrangement information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Naoto Toda
  • Patent number: 11353541
    Abstract: In a general aspect, a target is localized based on measurements from a measurement device array. In some aspects, range difference values (di) and coordinate vectors (ai) of devices in the measurement device array are obtained. The range difference values are generated based on time difference of arrival measurements of wireless signals between the target device and each of the devices in the measurement device array. A first matrix (A) and a first vector (b) are constructed. The first matrix (A) and the first vector (b) each includes the range difference values and the coordinate vectors. Whether a second vector (y) satisfies a condition set is determined. The condition set includes a first condition (ATA+?D)y=ATb and a second condition vT (ATA+?D)v?0. A numerical approximation of an optimal solution of the second vector is generated. The target device is localized according to the numerical approximation of the optimal solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Zhejiang University
    Inventors: Junfeng Wu, Jiming Chen, Jieqiang Wei, Guangyang Zeng
  • Patent number: 11346916
    Abstract: Directional antennas comprising substantially identical radiation patterns separated in a horizontal plane by an index angle. A line of bearing to an emitter is determined by a ratio of the power level of an EM signal received by the directional antennas and comparing it to a lookup table to determine an angle off of the boresight of the directional antenna with the highest received power level of the EM signal toward the directional antenna with the second-highest received power level of the EM signal that the emitter of the EM signal is located.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Softronics, Ltd.
    Inventor: Robert H. Sternowski
  • Patent number: 11333772
    Abstract: A microservice node can include a network real-time kinematics (RTK) device to receive raw satellite data associated with a physical reference station via a first message in a first message queue, to receive static virtual location data associated with a static virtual reference station (VRS) agent, to generate corrections data for the static VRS agent based on the raw satellite data and the static virtual location data, and to transmit the corrections data to the static VRS agent. The microservice node can include the static VRS agent to publish the corrections data in a second message in a second message queue. The microservice node can include an adapter device to determine that the client device is located within a geographic area associated with the static VRS agent and to transmit the corrections data from the second message queue to the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher N. Del Regno, Ashish Sardesai, Mohammed M. Rahman
  • Patent number: 11327182
    Abstract: A method and corresponding device for detecting correction information for an antenna for receiving data of a satellite of a satellite navigation system includes the steps of determining first distance information of the antenna relative to a satellite of a satellite navigation system, capturing position information and orientation information of the antenna on the basis of sensor information, determining second distance information of the antenna relative to the satellite on the basis of the position information captured using sensor information, detecting a deviation of the first distance information from the second distance information, determining correction information on the basis of the detected deviation, and storing, in a data memory, the correction information regarding the orientation information captured by the sensor information. The correction information can be used in particular for correcting an angle-dependent phase center offset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: CONTINENTAL TEVES AG & CO OHG
    Inventors: Michael Zalewski, Ulrich Stählin
  • Patent number: 11327184
    Abstract: The invention relates to providing atmospheric correction data in a GNSS network-RTK system for correcting GNSS data, wherein a base triangulation that encloses at least part of the reference stations of the GNSS network-RTK system is subdivided into child triangles by means of a recursive division of parent triangles into four child triangles, synthetic data are determined for each of the child triangles based on a triangulation algorithm applied to basic data of the reference stations such that the synthetic data represent a gridded representation of the basic data, and access to correction data is provided, wherein the correction data comprise at least part of the synthetic data arranged in a quad-tree hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG
    Inventors: Frank Takac, Paul Spencer
  • Patent number: 11294068
    Abstract: A method is provided for calibrating a test platform including a plurality of system outputs to align RF signals generated by the system outputs. RF power of a combined RF signal is detected, where the combined RF signal is from a reference RF signal generated by a reference system output in the plurality of system outputs and a test RF signal generated by a test system output in the plurality of systems outputs. A phase of the test RF signal is iteratively shifted relative to the reference RF signal until the detected RF power reaches a minimum. The test RF signal is inverted to be in-phase with the reference RF signal when the combined RF power reaches the minimum. A system is also provided for calibrating a test platform including a plurality of system outputs to align RF signals generated by the system outputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: Spirent Communications, PLC
    Inventors: Neil Christopher Pearse, Mark Geoffrey Holbrow
  • Patent number: 11294067
    Abstract: A method and system are herein provided. The method may include receiving a GNSS signal, determining a normalized correlation window of the GNSS signal, determining an early sidelobe lock (Elock), a late sidelobe lock value (Llock), and main sidelobe lock (Mlock) value based on the normalized correlation window, determining an early sidelobe lock (Elock), a late sidelobe lock value (Llock), and main sidelobe lock (Mlock) value based on the normalized correlation window, and determining an early sidelobe lock (Elock), a late sidelobe lock value (Llock), and main sidelobe lock (Mlock) value based on the normalized correlation window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Inventor: Gary Lennen
  • Patent number: 11280912
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to localization of one or more radio frequency interference (RFI) emitters. More specifically some embodiments relate to localization of RFI emitters that interfere with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers by integrating the location estimates of two or more localization techniques. Various embodiments may be used to more accurately estimate an interference source (e.g., an RFI emitter's location) than each localization technique separately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of Colorado
    Inventors: Dennis M. Akos, Ryan Blay, Nagaraj Channarayapatna Shivaramaiah
  • Patent number: 11280915
    Abstract: A satellite radio wave receiving device including: one or more processors configured to: cause a receiver to start a receiving operation of receiving radio waves from positioning satellites; perform a current position calculation to calculate a current position based on the radio waves received; calculate a positioning accuracy of the current position; decide whether or not to adopt the current position based on a number of positioning satellites from which the receiver has received radio waves and the positioning accuracy; in response to deciding to adopt the current position, cause the receiver to stop the receiving operation; and in response to deciding to not adopt the current position, cause the receiver to continue the receiving operation of receiving radio waves from the positioning satellites and repeat performance of the current position calculation to calculate current positions based on the radio waves received during the continued receiving operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Takeshi Matsue
  • Patent number: 11269083
    Abstract: A method for determining a position of a motor vehicle includes receiving a first signal containing an absolute position of the motor vehicle, receiving a second signal containing a change in the position of the motor vehicle, generating first position information corresponding to the absolute position from the first signal when the first signal is available, and continued from the second signal according to the change in position when the first signal is not available, generating second position information corresponding to the first position information at the beginning of first time segments and continued over the first time segments from the second signal according to the change in position, and determining an error in the first position information using the second position information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventor: Marcus Wagner
  • Patent number: 11262458
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). More specifically, the embodiments of the present technology relate to a smart antenna module resistant to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) saturation for dual-frequency GNSS receivers. In some embodiments, a dynamically configured antenna module architecture can be for a dual-band (or multi-frequency) GNSS receiver that can adapt to different RFI conditions by performing corresponding working modes. For example, some embodiments of the smart antenna can measure (e.g., using a power detector) the power of an incoming multi-frequency signal to determine when the multifrequency signal is saturated. Then, using control logic the smart antenna can determine which frequency in the multi-frequency signal is usable and isolate (e.g. using radio frequency components) a frequency that is not saturated. A position estimate can then be generated based on the isolated multi-frequency signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate
    Inventors: Dennis M. Akos, Nagaraj Channarayapatna Shivaramaiah, Yafeng Li
  • Patent number: 11255977
    Abstract: A receiver for null steering in a navigation or positioning system includes a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) comprising elements, a switch array coupled to the elements of the CRPA, and a receiver circuit. The receiver circuit is configured to receive an incoming radio frequency (RF) satellite signal from the switch array. The receiver circuit is configured to control the switch array to receive digitized samples, wherein each sample is in a respective time interval for each element of the CRPA elements. The receiver circuit is configured to apply a weight value to each sample and sum the samples to provide a null steering beam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael H. Stockmaster
  • Patent number: 11221417
    Abstract: A system and method for estimating a position. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving global navigation satellite system signals from a plurality of global navigation satellite system satellites; receiving a plurality of reference station measurements; receiving external error correction data; generating first position estimates with a Real-Time Kinematic method, based on the global navigation satellite system signals and on the reference station measurements; and generating second position estimates with a Precise Point Positioning method, based on the global navigation satellite system signals, on the external error correction data, and on first position estimates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Wentao Zhang