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Autonomous formation flying sensor

  • US 6,072,433 A
  • Filed: 07/31/1997
  • Issued: 06/06/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/31/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A formation sensing system for a formation having a plurality of formation members, comprising:

  • a plurality of antennas disposed on each formation member to receive and transmit transmission signals with other formation members that are indicative of relative positioning and attitude information of the formation members; and

    a transceiver located on each formation member and connected to said antennas, said transceiver having a down-conversion assembly operable to demodulate received transmission signals from other formation members, a signal processor operable to process the received signals and generate data indicative of the relative positioning and attitude information without reference to an external signal outside the formation members, and an up-conversion assembly operable to use a ranging code to produce a transmission signal to other formation members,wherein transceivers of any two communicating formation members are configured to process respective transmission signals from each other to determine a clock offset and a distance between the two transceivers, without synchronization to a clock signal.

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