Patents by Inventor Nicholas Mark Faulkner

Nicholas Mark Faulkner has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11112422
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system for a spinning projectile includes: a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the spin axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros, the computed attitude comprising a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle; calculate a roll angle error; provide the roll angle error as an input to a Kalman filter that outputs a roll angle correction and a roll rate scale factor correction; and apply the calculated roll angle correction and roll rate scale factor correction to the output of the roll gyro.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: Atlantic Inertial Systems Limited
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Patent number: 10571271
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system comprising: a first, roll gyro with an axis oriented substantially parallel to the spin axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros; operate a Kalman filter that receives a plurality of measurement inputs including at least roll angle, pitch angle and yaw angle and that outputs at least a roll angle error; initialise the Kalman filter with a roll angle error uncertainty representative of a substantially unknown roll angle; generate at least one pseudo-measurement from stored expected flight data; provide said pseudo-measurement(s) to the corresponding measurement input of the Kalman filter; and apply the roll angle error from the Kalman filter as a correction to the roll angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: ATLANTIC INERTIAL SYSTEMS LIMITED
    Inventors: Nicholas Mark Faulkner, John Keith Sheard
  • Patent number: 10539421
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system (200) for a longitudinal projectile, comprising a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro such that they define a three dimensional coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: ATLANTIC INERTIAL SYSTEMS, LIMITED
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Patent number: 10415977
    Abstract: A method of compensating for signal error is described, comprising: receiving a first signal from a first sensor, said first signal indicative of a movement characteristic; applying an error compensation to said first signal to produce an output signal; applying a variable gain factor to said error compensation; receiving a second signal from a second sensor indicative of said movement characteristic; wherein said error compensation is calculated using the difference between said output signal and said second signal, and said variable gain factor is calculated using said first signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: ATLANTIC INERTIAL SYSTEMS LIMITED
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Publication number: 20180340779
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system comprising: a first, roll gyro with an axis oriented substantially parallel to the spin axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros; operate a Kalman filter that receives a plurality of measurement inputs including at least roll angle, pitch angle and yaw angle and that outputs at least a roll angle error; initialise the Kalman filter with a roll angle error uncertainty representative of a substantially unknown roll angle; generate at least one pseudo-measurement from stored expected flight data; provide said pseudo-measurement(s) to the corresponding measurement input of the Kalman filter; and apply the roll angle error from the Kalman filter as a correction to the roll angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Publication date: November 29, 2018
    Inventors: Nicholas Mark FAULKNER, John Keith SHEARD
  • Publication number: 20180017389
    Abstract: A method of compensating for signal error is described, comprising: receiving a first signal from a first sensor, said first signal indicative of a movement characteristic; applying an error compensation to said first signal to produce an output signal; applying a variable gain factor to said error compensation; receiving a second signal from a second sensor indicative of said movement characteristic; wherein said error compensation is calculated using the difference between said output signal and said second signal, and said variable gain factor is calculated using said first signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2016
    Publication date: January 18, 2018
    Applicant: Atlantic Inertial Systems Limited
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Publication number: 20170322030
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system (200) for a longitudinal projectile, comprising a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro such that they define a three dimensional coordinate system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2015
    Publication date: November 9, 2017
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Patent number: 9689684
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system for a longitudinal projectile comprising: a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro such that they define a three dimensional coordinate system; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros, the computed attitude comprising a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle; compare the computed pitch and yaw angles with expected values for the pitch and yaw angles; calculate a roll angle error and a roll scale factor error based on the difference between the computed pitch and yaw angles and the expected pitch and yaw angles; and apply the calculated roll angle error and roll scale factor error to the output of the roll gyro.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: ATLANTIC INERTIAL SYSTEMS, LIMITED.
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Publication number: 20170160306
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system for a spinning projectile comprising: a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the spin axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro such that they define a three dimensional coordinate system; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros, the computed attitude comprising a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle; calculate a roll angle error based on the difference between the computed pitch and yaw angles and expected pitch and yaw angles; provide the roll angle error as an input to a Kalman filter that outputs a roll angle correction and a roll rate scale factor correction; and apply the calculated roll angle correction and roll rate scale factor correction to the output of the roll gyro; wherein the Kalman filter models roll angle error as a function of roll rate and one or more wind variables.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2016
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner
  • Publication number: 20170016728
    Abstract: An inertial measurement system for a longitudinal projectile comprising: a first, roll gyro to be oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the projectile; a second gyro and a third gyro with axes arranged with respect to the roll gyro such that they define a three dimensional coordinate system; a controller, arranged to: compute a current projectile attitude from the outputs of the first, second and third gyros, the computed attitude comprising a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle; compare the computed pitch and yaw angles with expected values for the pitch and yaw angles; calculate a roll angle error and a roll scale factor error based on the difference between the computed pitch and yaw angles and the expected pitch and yaw angles; and apply the calculated roll angle error and roll scale factor error to the output of the roll gyro.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2015
    Publication date: January 19, 2017
    Inventors: John Keith Sheard, Nicholas Mark Faulkner