Antenna pointing equipment

• US 5,184,139 A
• Filed: 08/27/1991
• Issued: 02/02/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nec Toshiba Space Systems, Ltd. (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Hirako, Keiichi, Kawaguchi, Yoshihisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Blum, Theodore M.
• Application Number:
  US07/750,602
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• Field of Search: 342/359, 342/354, 342/356
• US Class Current: 342/354
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/1257 using the received signal strength

Abstract

An antenna pointing equipment of the present invention includes an error estimating section and a pointing angle correcting section. The error estimating section records the difference between a pointing mechanism angle detected by an angle detector and a reference angle estimated by a satellite position calculator, a pointing angle calculator and an angle estimating section in the tracking control mode and, for example, averages recorded differences to obtain a quantitative error of the estimated reference angle in the acquisition control mode. The pointing angle correcting section corrects the estimated reference angle for its error. The antenna pointing equipment also includes an area-impossible-to-track controller. The controller obtains an area which cannot be tracked by the antenna on the basis of orbital elements of a space navigation satellite and a target and forcible switches from the tracking control mode to the acquisition control mode when the target enters that area. In the acquisition control mode, the target direction at the time when the target goes out of that area is obtained and the reference angle of the antenna at that time is calculated.

Claims

1. An antenna pointing equipment for directing an antenna carried on a space navigation satellite to a target comprising:

pointing mechanism angle detecting means for detecting a pointing mechanism angle of said antenna;

reference angle estimating means for estimating a theoretical reference angle of said antenna on the basis of orbital elements of said space navigation satellite and said target;

error estimating means for obtaining an error of said theoretical reference angle from a difference between said pointing mechanism angle of said antenna detected by said pointing mechanism angle detecting means and said reference angle estimated by said reference angle estimating means;

correcting means for correcting said reference angle on the basis of said error obtained by said error estimating means;

acquisition control means for controlling the direction of said antenna on the basis of said reference angle corrected by said correcting means to acquire said target;

pointing error detecting means for detecting a pointing error of said antenna relative to said target in a state in which said target is acquired by said acquisition control means; and

tracking control means for controlling the direction of said antenna so as to correct said pointing error obtained by said pointing error detecting means to thereby track said target.

2. An antenna pointing equipment according to claim 1, further comprising switching control means for switching between the target acquisition state when said direction error cannot be detected by said direction error detecting means and a target tracking state when said direction error can be detected.

3. An antenna pointing records according to claim 1, in which said error estimating means records the difference between the antenna pointing mechanism angle detected by said pointing mechanism angle detecting means and the reference angle estimated by said reference angle estimating means during a target tracking state and obtains a quantitative error of the estimated reference angle from the recorded difference during a target acquisition state.

4. An antenna pointing equipment according to claim 1, further comprising area-impossible-to-track control means for obtaining an area which cannot be tracked by said antenna on the basis of the orbital elements of said space navigation satellite and said target and forcibly switching from the tracking control state to the acquisition control state when said target enters that area.

5. An antenna pointing equipment according to claim 4, in which said reference angle estimating means obtains the direction of said target when it goes out of said area and estimates a reference angle of said antenna in the acquisition control state.

7. An antenna pointing equipment according to claim 5, further comprising switching control means for switching between the target acquisition state when said pointing error cannot be detected by said pointing error pointing means and a target tracking state when said pointing error can be detected.

8. An antenna pointing equipment according to claim 5, in which said reference angle calculating means obtains the direction of said target when it goes out of said area and calculates a reference angle of said antenna in the acquisition control state.

6. An antenna pointing equipment for directing an antenna carried on a space navigation satellite to a target comprising:

pointing mechanism angle detecting means for detecting a direction angle of said antenna;

reference angle calculating means for calculating a reference angle of said antenna on the basis of orbital elements of said space navigation satellite and said target;

acquisition control means for controlling the direction of said antenna so that said pointing mechanism angle detected by said pointing mechanism angle detecting means may agree with said reference angle obtained by said reference angle calculating means to thereby acquire said target;

pointing error detecting means for detecting a pointing error of said antenna relative to said target in a state in which said target is acquired by said acquisition control means;

tracking control means for controlling the direction of said antenna so as to correct said pointing error obtained by said pointing error detecting means to thereby track said target; and

area-impossible-to-track control means for obtaining an area which cannot be tracked by said antenna on the basis of the orbital elements of said space navigation satellite and said target and forcibly switching from a tracking control state to an acquisition control state when said target enters that area.