Magnetic direction finder with correcting circuit

• US 5,287,297 A
• Filed: 09/09/1992
• Issued: 02/15/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamashita, Mitsuhiro, Ihara, Yasuhiro, Ueyama, Yoshiki
• Primary Examiner(s): Cosimano, Edward R.
• Application Number:
  US07/942,336
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• Field of Search: 33/356, 364/449, 364/457, 364/559, 364/571.02, 364/571.05
• US Class Current: 702/93
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses

Abstract

The direction of a terrestrial magnetism is detected by a terrestrial magnetism sensor mounted on a vehicle, and an output circle is generated on an X-Y coordinate by turning the vehicle on the ground, when the vehicle passes through a foreign magnetic fields the direction of the foreign magnetic field is detected by the terrestrial magnetism sensor, and the course thereof is determined on the basis of former output circle before passing through the foreign magnetic field and the output of an angular velocity sensor of the vehicle after passing it, then a new center of the output circle is determined by evaluating an intersection of the line representing the foreign magnetic field and the line representing the course of the vehicle on the X-Y coordinate.

Claims

1. A direction finding apparatus for a vehicle comprising:

a terrestrial magnetism sensor mounted on the vehicle, having two sensor elements arranged orthogonally to each other and mounted on the vehicle in a vertical plane with respect to one another for detecting a terrestrial magnetism and producing a signal indicative of terrestrial magnetism;

magnetization intensity data storing means for determining a first intensity of magnetization of said vehicle on the basis of outputs of said two sensor elements of said terrestrial magnetism sensor in an X-Y coordinate system based on a 360°

turning of said vehicle on the ground and for storing said first intensity as a magnetization intensity;

foreign magnetic field sensing means for sensing a direction of a foreign magnetic field which is caused by a current flowing through electricity transmission lines, such as a railroad track, when the vehicle passes through said foreign magnetic field;

course finding means for determining a course of said vehicle on the basis of the signal indicative of terrestrial magnetism and the intensity of magnetization;

direction determining means for determining an assumed direction based on the course of said vehicle determined by said course finding means and said first intensity of magnetization calculated before said vehicle passed through said foreign magnetic field after each time the vehicle has passed through said foreign magnetic field;

magnetization intensity determining means for determining a new intensity of magnetization after each time the vehicle passes through said foreign magnetic field by deriving an intersection of a first straight line, representing the direction of the foreign magnetic field detected by said foreign magnetic field sensing means and a second straight line, representing a course of said vehicle after said vehicle has passed through said foreign magnetic field detected by said direction determining means, on a plane including an output circle of a terrestrial magnetism, at which a center of said output circle of the terrestrial magnetism is positioned,

data renewal means for storing the new intensity of magnetization obtained by said magnetization intensity determining means in said magnetization intensity data storing means as a new magnetization intensity after each time the vehicle has passed through said foreign magnetic field, and

output means connected to the output of the direction determining means for continuously outputting data indicative of a direction of the vehicle based on the signal indicative of terrestrial magnetism and the magnetization intensity.

2. A direction finding apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said magnetization intensity data storing means comprises calculation means for calculating said first intensity of magnetization and memory means for storing the renewed intensity of magnetization by said data renewal means.

3. A direction finding apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said direction determining means comprises an angular velocity sensor for detecting turning of said vehicle, and said direction is computed using the output of said angular velocity sensor and said course derived by said course finding means before passing through said foreign magnetic field.