Three axes line-of-sight transducer
First Claim
1. A system for measuring orientation of an object comprising:
- an encoded pattern applied to a portion of the surface of said object, said pattern including a grid of dots, said dots being arranged in a first predetermined number of dot code cycles, said pattern including means for determining each dot code cycle, said means for determining including a location code disposed within each dot code cycle;
first means for reading said pattern and outputting data representative of said pattern; and
second means for decoding data from said first means into orientation information.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for measuring orientation of an object. In the illustrative embodiment, the object is a ball (42) in a ball and socket type pointing and stabilization system. The novel system (40) includes an encoded pattern (46) applied to a portion of the surface of the ball (42), a pattern reader (44) which reads the pattern (46) off the ball (42) and outputs data representative of the pattern (46), and a processor (48) which decodes the data into orientation information. In the preferred embodiment, the pattern reader (44) is an electro-optical sensor, and the encoded pattern (46) includes a grid of dots (52) arranged in a first predetermined number of dot code cycles (58) wherein each dot code cycle (58) includes a second predetermined number of dots. The processor (48) includes an algorithm (100) which computes pitch, yaw, and roll angles from the pattern reader data.
-
Citations
17 Claims
-
1. A system for measuring orientation of an object comprising:
-
an encoded pattern applied to a portion of the surface of said object, said pattern including a grid of dots, said dots being arranged in a first predetermined number of dot code cycles, said pattern including means for determining each dot code cycle, said means for determining including a location code disposed within each dot code cycle; first means for reading said pattern and outputting data representative of said pattern; and second means for decoding data from said first means into orientation information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method for measuring orientation of an object including the steps of:
-
depositing an encoded pattern on a portion of the surface of said object, said pattern including a grid of dots, said dots being arranged in a first predetermined number of dot code cycles, said pattern including means for determining each dot code cycle, said means for determining including a location code disposed within each dot code cycle; reading said pattern and outputting data representative of said pattern; and decoding said data into orientation information.
-
Specification