Method and Apparatus for Determining Direction of the Beginning of Vehicle Movement
First Claim
1. A method of determining movement direction and orientation of a vehicle, comprising:
- mounting a compass onto a vehicle which is azimuthally oriented in a prevailing movement direction (“
forward”
direction),measuring a vector azimuth of vehicle movement vector with a movement vector measurement unit;
measuring a compass azimuth with a compass;
calculating an angle between the vector azimuth and the compass azimuth,determining the movement direction as “
backward”
if the calculated angle between the azimuths is greater than 90 degrees, and as “
forward”
if the angle is smaller than 90 degrees.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of movement mode determination comprising measurement of vehicle'"'"'s position and orientation and calculation of movement parameters, a compass on the vehicle, is azimuthally oriented along the prevailing and is mostly used movement direction (“forward” direction), a movement vector measurement unit, is used for measuring the azimuth of movement vector. A calculation unit being used for measuring an angle between vehicle movement vector azimuth measured by the movement vector measurement unit and vehicle azimuth measured by the compass fixed on the vehicle; movement is regarded as ‘backward” if the calculated angle is greater than 90 degrees, and “forward” if the calculated angle is smaller than 90 degrees. Also, an apparatus for movement direction determination includes a compass and a computation unit and further comprises a movement vector measurement unit for determining vehicle movement azimuth and connected through a signal connection to the computation unit.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of determining movement direction and orientation of a vehicle, comprising:
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mounting a compass onto a vehicle which is azimuthally oriented in a prevailing movement direction (“
forward”
direction),measuring a vector azimuth of vehicle movement vector with a movement vector measurement unit; measuring a compass azimuth with a compass; calculating an angle between the vector azimuth and the compass azimuth, determining the movement direction as “
backward”
if the calculated angle between the azimuths is greater than 90 degrees, and as “
forward”
if the angle is smaller than 90 degrees. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus of movement mode determination comprising;
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a compass adapted to provide a compass azimuth signal that represents a movement direction of a vehicle; a movement vector computation unit adapted to calculate a vector azimuth that also represents a movement direction of a vehicle; and a computation unit connected to the compass and to the movement vector computation unit, wherein the computation unit calculates an angle between the vector azimuth and the compass azimuth, and determines the vehicle movement direction as “
backward”
if the calculated angle between the azimuths is greater than 90 degrees, and as “
forward”
if the angle is smaller than 90 degrees. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification