Patents Examined by Fred H. Mull
  • Patent number: 11217897
    Abstract: An antenna system and method use an electronically-scanned antenna array and a hybrid beam former architecture. The antenna system includes a matrix of antenna elements and a feeder network. The feeder network includes a first layer including phase shifters. Each of the phase shifters is for a respective antenna element of the antenna elements. The feeder network also includes a second layer and a third layer. Each of the first set of the first time delay units in the second layer is for a respective first subarray of the first subarrays of the antenna elements. Each of the second set of the second time delay units in the third layer is for a respective second subarray of the second subarrays of the first subarrays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: James B. West, Michael L. Hageman
  • Patent number: 11187810
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for tracking a plurality of satellite signals received by a Global Navigation Satellite System, GNSS, receiver from a plurality of satellites, each satellite signal being processed in a different one of a plurality of channels (100a-k; 300a-k) of the GNSS receiver. At least one summing unit (116, 120; 356, 358, 360; 366) is configured to sum corresponding correlation values from each of a plurality of sets of correlation values, each set from one of the plurality of channels, to determine a plurality of summed correlation values, wherein each correlation value in a set represents a correlation between a signal derived from a corresponding one of the plurality of received satellite signals, and one of a plurality of replica signals each based on a known position and/or velocity of the GNSS receiver and one of a plurality of estimated receiver timing parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: u-blox AG
    Inventor: Zhenlan Cheng
  • Patent number: 11187812
    Abstract: In a case where a first RTK positioning solution is a fixed solution and a second RTK positioning solution is a float solution, a processor estimates a position of a second receiver based on the first RTK positioning solution, inter-antenna distance, and antenna azimuth angle to set an area within a circle with radius centered on the estimated position as a search range. Next, the processor calculates an integer ambiguity within the search range obtained in the RTK calculation as a second RTK positioning solution. Then, the processor outputs the first RTK positioning solution and the second RTK positioning solution as positioning solutions (current coordinates of a moving object).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yasuhisa Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 11187534
    Abstract: A system for generating a 3D reflective surface map includes a positioning system, one or more antennas co-located with the positioning system, and a processing system. The positioning system calculates a position estimate. The one or more antennas co-located with the positioning system are configured to receive at least one reflected global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal associated with a respective GNSS satellite and wherein a pseudo-range to the GNSS satellite is determined based on the reflected GNSS signal. The processing system is configured to receive the position estimate and the pseudo-ranges calculated with respect to each reflected GNSS signal, wherein the processing system maps a reflective surface based on the calculated pseudo-range provided by the reflected GNSS signals, the position estimate, angle-of-arrival of each reflected GNSS signal, and known satellite location of each respective GNSS satellite.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Inventors: Eric P. Knutson, Bradley S. Coon, Linh N. Pham
  • Patent number: 11178546
    Abstract: A mobile device, which includes a satellite navigation system receiver with embedded confidential seed key for generating Galileo message authentication codes (MACs) for any desired time instant, generates a MAC for a given time instant and transmits the MAC or a derived code as a verification code. A receiving entity authenticates the satellite navigation system receiver by comparing the obtained verification code with an available verification code known to be valid for the given time instant. The satellite navigation system receiver is considered to be an authentic satellite navigation system receiver of a mobile device only in case the at least one obtained verification code matches the available verification code. Selected further actions are enabled only if the satellite navigation system receiver is considered an authentic satellite navigation system receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: HERE Global B.V.
    Inventor: Jari Tapani Syrjarinne
  • Patent number: 11175374
    Abstract: A technology for improving a positioning precision is desired in a case where a positioning precision of a positioning signal is relatively low. A location estimation apparatus includes a sub area extraction section configured to extract one or more sub areas including at least a part of a region defined by a location and an error range indicated by positioning information, a precision parameter extraction section configured to refer to map information in which area identification information is associated with a precision parameter indicating a positioning precision and extract, with regard to each of the one or more sub areas extracted by the sub area extraction section, the precision parameter, and an output section configured to output the sub area where the positioning precision indicated by the precision parameter is equal to or worse than the positioning precision indicated by the positioning information, as a location of a moving object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Naoki Kameyama, Keiji Muro, Hideaki Shimamura
  • Patent number: 11169274
    Abstract: A method is provided for establishing a location of a device based on a global navigation satellite system. Methods may include: receiving sensor data of an environment of the apparatus; estimating object location within the environment based on the sensor data; receiving a static elevation mask; generating a learned-elevation mask based, at least in part, on the static elevation mask and the estimated object location within the environment; receiving signals from a plurality of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites; filtering the signals from the plurality of GNSS satellites to eliminate from consideration a subset of satellites established as not having a line-of-sight with the apparatus; establishing a location of the apparatus from remaining satellites established as having a line-of-sight with the apparatus; and providing for at least one of route guidance or autonomous vehicle control based on the established location of the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: HERE GLOBAL B.V.
    Inventors: Anirudh Viswanathan, Peter Christian
  • Patent number: 11163032
    Abstract: A measurement system for identifying a source direction of a wireless electromagnetic emitter signal is described. The measurement system is a radio frequency measurement system that comprises a rotary antenna and an analyzer or analysis unit being connected to the rotary antenna in a signal transmitting manner. The rotary antenna is a directional antenna and configured to receive the emitter signal and to forward the received emitter signal to the analysis unit for further processing. The measurement system is configured to gather a momentary position of the rotary antenna. The analysis unit is configured to determine a momentary frequency spectrum of the emitter signal and to combine the momentary frequency spectrum with the momentary position to generate source direction data comprising information on both the momentary frequency spectrum of the emitter signal and the momentary position of the rotary antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Georg Steinhilber
  • Patent number: 11156724
    Abstract: In RTK positioning, a calibration memory stores calibration information for combinations of GNSS receivers. A memory processor retrieves the calibration information for a selected combination of a first GNSS receiver for a base station and a second GNSS receiver for a rover from the calibration memory. A calibration apparatus, by communicating with the rover and the memory processor, receives a first correction signal associated with the first GNSS receiver, obtains the calibration information and modifies the first correction signal therewith to generate a modified correction signal calibrated for the second GNSS receiver with respect to the first GNSS receiver, and transmits the modified correction signal to the rover. The rover performs the RTK positioning with respect to a known GNSS receiver of the base station using the modified correction signal, thereby automatically achieving the frequency-dependent hardware bias calibration for the second GNSS receiver with respect to the first GNSS receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: Magellan Systems Japan, Inc.
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Kishimoto, Toshinobu Nagamatsu, Takehiro Ohnishi
  • Patent number: 11125891
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a data processing method and apparatus. The invention provides an electronic device including: a communication module; a first location calculating module; a second location calculating module; and a first processor electrically connected to at least one of the first location calculating module and/or the second location calculating module. The first processor may be configured to: identify property information of at least one application that is driven by the first processor and requests location information; determine a location accuracy level on the basis of the identified property information of the at least one application; and select one of the first location calculating module and/or the second location calculating module in order to calculate the location of the electronic device by using a signal obtained through the communication module, according to the determined location accuracy level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jin-Ik Kim, Bo-Sung Kwak, Myeong-Woo Koo, Seung-Yoon Lee, Chae-Heun Lee
  • Patent number: 11125884
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a positioning method, the positioning method includes: obtaining, by the server, first location information, where the first location information is used to indicate a location of the base station; obtaining, by the server, correction information for the base station according to the location of the base station; and sending, by the server, the correction information to the base station, so that the base station forwards the correction information to the mobile terminal, and the mobile terminal determines a location of the mobile terminal according to the correction information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yi Zhang, Hui Li
  • Patent number: 11119223
    Abstract: A device and method which improves the accuracy of a global positioning system (GPS)-equipped mobile device. A time-stamped first set of GPS data is received via a GPS receiver, e.g., of the base station. A second set of GPS data describing a geoposition of the mobile device is received from the mobile device by the base station. A time of collection of the GPS data coincides. The GPS data includes code, carrier-phase, and pseudo-range information from each of the GPS satellites. A predetermined GPS position correction technique is used to generate a first corrected geoposition of the mobile device using the GPS data. Corrected, carrier-smoothed geoposition is generated as a second corrected geoposition using a carrier smoothing operation. The second corrected geoposition is transmitted to the mobile device and/or an external response system such as a drone or first responder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA
    Inventors: Evan T. Dill, Russell V. Gilabert
  • Patent number: 11112507
    Abstract: A method may be executed by a base station or mobile device to improve accuracy of a global positioning system (GPS)-based position or “geoposition” of the mobile device. A time-stamped first set of GPS data may be received via a GPS receiver, e.g., of the base station. A second set of GPS data describing a geoposition of the mobile device is received from the mobile device by the base station. A time of collection of the base station and mobile device GPS data coincides. The GPS data includes code phase and pseudo-range data from each of the GPS satellites, and may include carrier phase data. A predetermined GPS position correction technique is used to generate a corrected geoposition of the mobile device using the GPS data. The corrected geoposition is then transmitted to the mobile device and/or an external response system such as a drone or first responder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA
    Inventor: Evan T. Dill
  • Patent number: 11101572
    Abstract: In an embodiment, an antenna includes a one-dimensional array of antenna cells, a signal feed, and signal couplers. The antenna cells are each spaced from an adjacent antenna cell by less than one half a wavelength at which the antenna cells are configured to transmit and to receive, are configured to generate an array beam that is narrower in a dimension than in an orthogonal dimension, and are configured to steer the array beam in the dimension. And the signal couplers are each configured to couple a respective one of the antenna cells to the signal feed in response a respective control signal having an active level. For example, the antenna cells can be arranged such that a straight line intersects their geometric centers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Echodyne Corp.
    Inventors: Adam Bily, Tom Driscoll, John Desmond Hunt, Charles A. Renneberg, Ioannis Tzanidis, Robert Tilman Worl
  • Patent number: 11095030
    Abstract: A receiver (1) for a phased array antenna comprises a laser light source (2) arranged to provide an optical spectrum comprising a first spectral component having a first wavelength and a second spectral component having a second wavelength. The first wavelength is spaced from the second wavelength. A wavelength separator (4) is configured to separate the first spectral component from the second spectral component, such that the first spectral component is directed onto a first path (A) and the second spectral component is directed onto a second path (B). A first delay unit (16) is configured to add a controllable time delay to the first spectral component on the first path. A second delay unit (42) is configured to add the time delay to the second spectral component on the second path. A modulator (14) is configured to modulate the first spectral component on the first path with a received RF signal from the phased array antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Marzio Puleri, Antonella Bogoni, Antonio D'Errico, Paolo Ghelfi
  • Patent number: 11085991
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a test node-based wireless positioning method and a device thereof, the method comprising the steps of mapping and storing the number and position coordinates of anchor nodes, which are within a set distance from a test node, for each of a plurality of test nodes set at uniform intervals in a space formed by a plurality of anchor nodes; acquiring each position coordinate of the anchor nodes, which are within the set distance from a unknown node to be positioned; comparing each of the acquired position coordinates of the anchor nodes and the position coordinates of the anchor node mapped on the test nodes, so as to select the test nodes of which the number of position coordinates coinciding with the anchor nodes greater than a threshold; and estimating the position of the unknown node by using the position coordinates of the selected test nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: SOONGSIL UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CONSORTIUM TECHNO-PARK
    Inventors: Yo An Shin, Kwang-Yul Kim, Seung-Woo Lee
  • Patent number: 11079495
    Abstract: A positioning system for tracking a position of a vehicle includes a receiver configured to receive phase measurements of satellite signals received at multiple instances of time from multiple satellites, and a memory configured to store a recurrent neural network trained to determine a position of the vehicle from a set of phase measurements in a presence of noise caused by a multipath transmission of at least some of the satellite signals at some instances of time. A processor of the positioning system is configured to track the position of the vehicle over different instances of time by processing the set of phase measurements received at each instance of time with the recurrent neural network to produce the position of the vehicle at each instance of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Kyeong Jin Kim, Philip Orlik, Chiori Hori
  • Patent number: 11073594
    Abstract: A position estimating device includes a processor, and a memory storing program instructions that cause the processor to obtain a plurality of position data of a transmitter, the plurality of position data being output from respective positioning devices, calculate a density of the plurality of position data based on the plurality of obtained position data output from the respective positioning devices, the density of the plurality of position data being a value indicating how close positions indicated by the plurality of position data are, and estimate a position of the transmitter based on the plurality of position data output from the respective positioning devices and the calculated density.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: ALPS ALPINE CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keigo Wakana, Yukimitsu Yamada
  • Patent number: 11061142
    Abstract: The disclosed method for determining atmospheric time delays involves receiving at least two signals, where the signals each have a different carrier frequency. The method further involves amplifying each of the signals with a respective amplifier for each of the signals to produce amplified signals. Also, the method involves digitizing each of the amplified signals with a respective analog to digital converter (ADC) for each of the amplified signals to produce digital signals. In addition, the method involves correlating each of the digital signals with a code using a respective correlator for each of the digital signals to determine the time group delay differential between the signals. Further, the method involves calculating, with at least one processor, the time group delay coefficient of the signals by using the time group delay differential. The time group delay coefficient is used to correct for the atmospheric time delays in the signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: Cornel Prunean
  • Patent number: 11054526
    Abstract: A satellite positioning module is provided, including: a receiver configured for receiving satellite signals from a plurality of satellites; and a processor connected to the receiver and configured for: performing an operation based on the satellite signals to obtain an elevation angle standard deviation; performing an operation based on the elevation angle standard deviation to obtain an elevation angle mask value; selecting a satellite signal of a satellite that has an elevation angle greater than the elevation angle mask value based on the satellite signals of the satellites to perform a positioning algorithm; and performing the positioning algorithm to obtain position information. A satellite positioning method is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
    Inventors: Jiun-Ming Wu, Cheng-Yun Ho