E-compass, tilt sensor, memory and processor with coarse detilting procedure

• US 9,062,971 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Dutta, Goutam
• Primary Examiner(s): Suglo, Janet
• Assistant Examiner(s): DALBO, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US12/398,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,301 Days
• Field of Search: 702/92, 333/26, 324/202
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/02 Magnetic compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/28 Electromagnetic compasses with north seeking magnetic elements and having electric pick-offs G01C17/26
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 25/005 initial alignment, calibration or starting-up of inertial devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49826 Assembling or joining

Abstract

An electronic circuit includes an electronic compass having e-compass sensors mounted on different axes and operable to supply e-compass sensor data, memory circuitry, and an electronic processor coupled to said e-compass sensors and to said memory circuitry, said electronic processor operable to execute an electronic ellipse-fitting procedure responsive to the e-compass sensor data to generate at least one signal related to an ellipse tilt angle, and store the at least one signal in said memory circuitry as a tilt calibration parameter for the e-compass. Processes for calibrating an e-compass, as well as electronic circuits and processes for correcting measured heading, and processes of manufacture are also disclosed.

Claims

1. An electronic circuit comprising:

an e-compass oriented with a heading and having e-compass sensors mounted on different axes, the e-compass having sensor circuitry with outputs that supply e-compass sensor data;

a tilt sensor including sensor circuitry having outputs to supply tilt sensor data;

memory circuitry having inputs and outputs and holding a tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter, the tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter representing a residual tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter arising from non-idealities in the tilt sensor and remaining after a coarse detilting procedure performed in response to tilt sensor data and on calibration data from the e-compass sensors; and

electronic processor circuitry having leads coupled to the e-compass sensor outputs and to the memory circuitry outputs, the electronic processor circuitry responsive to the e-compass sensor data and the tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter to generate at least one output signal representing a measured heading of the e-compass corrected using the tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter.

2. The electronic circuit claimed in claim 1 in which the tilt sensor includes an accelerometer.

3. The electronic circuit claimed in claim 2 in which the processor circuitry is operable to generate at least one signal representing position in response to the accelerometer and the e-compass sensor data.

4. The electronic circuit claimed in claim 1 in which the memory circuitry holds instructions for processing the e-compass sensor data and the residual tilt angle e-compass calibration parameter to generate the at least one signal representing the corrected measured heading of the e-compass.

5. The electronic circuit claimed in claim 1 further including decoding circuitry for decoding satellite positioning signals, the processor circuitry coupled to the decoding circuitry and operable to generate at least one signal representing position in response to the decoding circuitry and the e-compass sensor data.