Speed and direction sensing apparatus for a vehicle
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for sensing a vector velocity of a point on a vehicle with respect to ground, comprising:
- first and second speed over ground sensors, each of which has a preferred sensing orientation and is sensitive to speed and direction of movement in said preferred sensing orientation, said first and second sensors being arranged at said point on said vehicle with said preferred sensing orientations being aligned in first and second axes, respectively, said first and second axes are non-parallel in a horizontal plane; and
processing means, responsive to said first and second speed over ground sensors, for providing a vector velocity output.
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Abstract
An apparatus is provided for determining the velocity and orientation of a vehicle, for instance to permit route guidance by dead reckoning. Two optical speed over ground sensors on the vehicle are arranged at acute angles to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. One or more further sensors, such as a fibre optic gyroscope or one or two optical speed over ground sensors, are provided on the vehicle. The speed and direction from these sensors can be used by a data processor to perform dead reckoning navigation and the vehicle position can thus be determined.
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10 Claims
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1. An apparatus for sensing a vector velocity of a point on a vehicle with respect to ground, comprising:
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first and second speed over ground sensors, each of which has a preferred sensing orientation and is sensitive to speed and direction of movement in said preferred sensing orientation, said first and second sensors being arranged at said point on said vehicle with said preferred sensing orientations being aligned in first and second axes, respectively, said first and second axes are non-parallel in a horizontal plane; and processing means, responsive to said first and second speed over ground sensors, for providing a vector velocity output. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An apparatus for sensing velocity and orientation of a vehicle with respect to ground, comprising:
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first and second speed over ground sensors and at least one vehicle movement sensor, each of said speed over ground sensor having a preferred sensing orientation and sensitive to speed and direction of movement in said preferred sensing orientation, said first and second speed over ground sensors being arranged on the vehicle with said preferred sensing orientations being aligned in first and second axes, respectively, said first and second axes are non-parallel in a horizontal plane; and processing means, responsive to said first and second speed over ground sensors and said at least one vehicle movement sensor, for providing a vector velocity and orientation of the vehicle output. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A dead reckoning system for a vehicle, comprising:
first and second vehicle movement sensors, at least one further vehicle movement sensor, and processing means, said first and second vehicle movement sensors comprising first and second speed over ground sensors, each of which has a preferred sensing orientation and produces an output signal representing speed and direction of movement in said preferred sensing orientation, said first and second speed over ground sensors being arranged on the vehicle with said preferred sensing orientations being aligned in first and second axes, respectively, said first and second axes are non-parallel in a horizontal plane, said at least one further vehicle movement sensor producing an output signal representing vehicle movement, said processing means providing a sequence of estimated positions of the vehicle each consecutive pair of which is separated by a predetermined time interval, said processing means estimating each estimated position of said sequence from a preceding estimated position of said sequence, from said predetermined time interval, from said output signals of said first and second speed over ground sensors, and from said output signal of said at least one further vehicle movement sensor.
Specification