Volume measurement system and method for volume element counting
First Claim
1. A liquid volume measurement system, comprising:
- an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of a liquid surface within a container;
a liquid level sensor to sense a level of the liquid surface; and
a processor operatively coupled to the orientation sensor for receiving orientation data, and operatively coupled to the liquid level sensor for receiving level data;
wherein the processor uses the orientation data and the level data to generate an indication of the surface location, and wherein for each of a plurality of volume elements into which the container is divided, the processor compares an indication of a volume element location of the respective element with the indication of the surface location of the liquid surface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A volume measurement system uses volume element counting in determining the amount of a liquid such as fuel in an irregularly-shaped container such as a fuel tank which can have changing orientation. The container is conceptually divided up into a plurality of volume elements. An orientation sensor determines the orientation of the container or of the liquid surface, which is approximated as a plane. A computational or optical processor uses orientation data to project vectors representing the volume elements onto a direction normal to the liquid interface plane. These projected distances are then arithmetically or optically compared to the location of the liquid interface plane.
40 Citations
45 Claims
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1. A liquid volume measurement system, comprising:
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an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of a liquid surface within a container;
a liquid level sensor to sense a level of the liquid surface; and
a processor operatively coupled to the orientation sensor for receiving orientation data, and operatively coupled to the liquid level sensor for receiving level data;
wherein the processor uses the orientation data and the level data to generate an indication of the surface location, and wherein for each of a plurality of volume elements into which the container is divided, the processor compares an indication of a volume element location of the respective element with the indication of the surface location of the liquid surface. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28)
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2. A liquid volume measurement system comprising:
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an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of a liquid surface within the container;
a liquid level sensor to sense a level of the liquid surface relative to the container; and
a processor operatively coupled to the orientation sensor for receiving orientation data, and operatively coupled to the liquid level sensor for receiving level data;
wherein the processor uses the orientation data and the level data to generate an indication of the surface location, wherein for each of a plurality of volume elements of the container, the processor compares an indication of a volume element location of the respective element with the indication of the surface location of the liquid surface, wherein the indication of a volume element location is an indication of a volume element distance of the respective element along an axis normal to the liquid surface, and wherein the indication of a surface location is an indication of a level distance of the surface along the axis. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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29. A method for measuring liquid volume, comprising the steps of:
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conceptually dividing a container into a plurality of volume elements;
representing each of the volume elements by an associated point within the respective element, wherein for each of the volume elements there exists an associated vector between a fixed point and the respective associated point;
determining a vector normal to a liquid surface within the container;
determining a liquid surface distance between the fixed point and the liquid surface in the direction of the normal vector;
projecting the associated vectors in the direction of the normal vector to determine a projected distance for each of the volume elements; and
comparing each of the projected distances with the liquid surface distance. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A fuel volume measurement system, comprising:
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an orientation sensor to sense an orientation of a fuel surface.within a fuel tank;
a fuel level sensor to sense a level of the fuel surface; and
a processor operatively coupled to the to the orientation sensor for receiving orientation data, and operatively coupled to the fuel level sensor for receiving the level;
a storage device operatively coupled to the processor, the storage device storing location data for each of a plurality of volume elements;
wherein for each of the volume elements of the fuel tank, the processor compares an indication of a volume element distance of the respective element along an axis normal to the fuel surface with an indication of a level distance of the surface along the axis, and wherein the processor further counts the volume elements having volume element distances less than the level distance and divides the count by the number of the volume elements. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42)
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43. A liquid volume measurement system, comprising:
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sensor means for determining the orientation of a liquid surface within a container and the position of the liquid surface along an axis normal to the liquid surface; and
processor means for projecting a plurality of volume elements into which the container is divided, onto said axis for comparison with the position of the liquid surface along said axis. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45)
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Specification