Vehicle compass system with continuous automatic calibration
First Claim
1. An electronic compass system for a vehicle comprising:
- a magnetic field sensor for detecting the earth'"'"'s magnetic field and for generating electrical signals representing a direction of the vehicle'"'"'s travel in relation to the earth'"'"'s magnetic field; and
a processing circuit coupled to said sensor for processing the electrical signals generated by said sensor to provide a vehicle direction output signal representative of the vehicle'"'"'s current heading, said processing circuit processes the electrical signals generated by said sensor by translating the electrical signals into data points represented by their coordinates with respect to an origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system by recalculating coordinates of a center point of a circle defined by a plot of the data points that would be derived as the vehicle travels through a non-linear path and determining offset compensation corresponding to the offset of the center of the circle with respect to the origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system when three data points are detected that define corners of a triangle meeting predetermined criteria.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The compass system of the present invention utilizes an improved calibration routine in which a processing circuit of the compass recalibrates the compass each time three data points are obtained from a magnetic field sensor that meet predetermined criteria. One such criterion is that the three data points define corners of a triangle that is substantially non-obtuse. When three data points have been obtained that define a triangle meeting this criterion, the processing circuit calculates a center point for a circle upon which all three data points lie by solving the equation x2+y2+Ax+By+C=0 for A, B, and C, using the coordinate values (x,y) for the three data points and defining the center point as (−A/2, −B/2).
128 Citations
47 Claims
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1. An electronic compass system for a vehicle comprising:
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a magnetic field sensor for detecting the earth'"'"'s magnetic field and for generating electrical signals representing a direction of the vehicle'"'"'s travel in relation to the earth'"'"'s magnetic field; and
a processing circuit coupled to said sensor for processing the electrical signals generated by said sensor to provide a vehicle direction output signal representative of the vehicle'"'"'s current heading, said processing circuit processes the electrical signals generated by said sensor by translating the electrical signals into data points represented by their coordinates with respect to an origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system by recalculating coordinates of a center point of a circle defined by a plot of the data points that would be derived as the vehicle travels through a non-linear path and determining offset compensation corresponding to the offset of the center of the circle with respect to the origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system when three data points are detected that define corners of a triangle meeting predetermined criteria. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An electronic compass for a vehicle comprising:
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first and second magnetic field sensors mounted in the vehicle for sensing directional components of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field relative to the vehicle'"'"'s heading, said first and second sensors generating electrical signals representative of the sensed directional components of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field; and
a processing circuit coupled to said sensors for processing the electrical signals generated by said sensors to provide a vehicle direction output signal representative of the vehicle'"'"'s current heading, said processing circuit processes the electrical signals generated by said sensors by translating the electrical signals into raw data points relative to reference levels defining an origin of a reference coordinate plane, said processing circuit obtains averaged data points by collecting and averaging successive sets of a predetermined number of raw data points, identifies three such averaged data points as candidate data points if the averaged data points meet predetermined spacing criteria, and calibrates the compass using the three candidate data points each time three such candidate data points are identified. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of calibrating an electronic compass used in a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) collecting raw data points from two magnetic sensors that sense perpendicular components of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field, the raw data points representing the vehicle'"'"'s current heading;
(b) averaging each collected raw data point with a predetermined number of previously collected raw data points to obtain an averaged data point;
(c) identifying the averaged data point as a first candidate data point;
(d) repeating steps (a) and (b) to obtain a second and a third averaged data point;
(e) identifying the second and third averaged data points as second and third candidate data points, respectively; and
(f) calibrating the compass using the first, second, and third candidate data points each time three such candidate data points are obtained. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
(g) determining whether the first, second, and third candidate data points define a triangle meeting predetermined criteria;
(h) discarding at least one of the first, second, and third candidate data points if the first, second, and third candidate data points do not define a triangle meeting the predetermined criteria;
(i) repeating steps (a) and (b) to obtain and identify replacement candidate data points for any candidate data points that are discarded in step (h); and
(j) repeating steps (g) through (i) until three candidate data points are identified that define a triangle meeting the predetermined criteria prior to performing step (f).
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27. The method as defined in claim 26, wherein the predetermined criterion that the triangle must meet is to be substantially non-obtuse.
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28. The method as defined in claim 27, wherein a triangle is considered to be substantially non-obtuse and thereby meet the predetermined criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relation {square root over (a2+L +b2+L )}/c≧
- 0.92, where c is the longest side.
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29. The method as defined in claim 26, wherein a triangle meets the predetermined criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relation {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
- 3, where a is the shortest side.
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30. The method as defined in claim 26, wherein a triangle meets the predetermined criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relations {square root over (a2+L +b2+L )}/c≧
- 0.92 and {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
3, where a is the shortest side.
- 0.92 and {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
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31. The method as defined in claim 25, wherein the step (f) of calibrating the compass includes the substeps of:
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(i) calculating center point coordinates for a circle upon which all three candidate data points lie by solving the equation x2+y2+Ax+By+C=0 for A, B, and C using the coordinate values (x, y) for the three candidate data points, and defining the center point as (−
A/2, −
B/2); and
(ii) determining offset compensation values to offset all raw data points obtained from the magnetic sensors by comparing the center point calculated in step (i) to an origin reference point.
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32. An electronic compass system for a vehicle comprising:
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a magnetic field sensor for detecting the earth'"'"'s magnetic field and for generating electrical signals representing the direction of the vehicle'"'"'s travel in relation to the earth'"'"'s magnetic field; and
a processing circuit coupled to said sensor for processing the electrical signals generated by said sensor to provide a vehicle direction output signal representative of the vehicle'"'"'s current heading, said processing circuit processes the electrical signals generated by said sensor by translating the electrical signals into data points represented by their coordinates with respect to an origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system by recalculating coordinates of a center point of a circle defined by a plot of the data points that would be derived as the vehicle travels through a non-linear path and determining offset compensation corresponding to the offset of the center of the circle with respect to the origin, said processing circuit calibrates the system when three data points are detected that meet predetermined criteria, whereby the three data points define corners of a substantially non-obtuse triangle. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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34. A compass system for a vehicle comprising:
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a magnetic field sensor for detecting the earth'"'"'s magnetic field and for generating electrical signals representing the direction of the vehicle'"'"'s travel in relation to the earth'"'"'s magnetic field; and
a processing circuit coupled to said sensor for processing the electrical signals generated by said sensor to provide a vehicle direction output signal representative of the vehicle'"'"'s current heading, said processing circuit processes the electrical signals generated by said sensor by translating the electrical signals into data points represented by their coordinates with respect to an origin of a reference coordinate plane, said processing circuit calibrates the system by recalculating coordinates of a center point of a circle defined by a plot of the data points that would be derived as the vehicle travels through a non-linear path and determining offset compensation corresponding to the offset of the center of the circle with respect to the origin, said processing circuit calculates the coordinates of the center point of a circle using three data points derived from the electrical signals output from said sensor by solving the equation x2+y2+Ax+By+C=0 for A, B, and C, using the coordinate values (x, y) for the three data points, and defining the center point as (−
A/2, −
B/2).- View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of calibrating an electronic compass used in a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) collecting raw data points by translating electrical signals received from a magnetic sensor that senses perpendicular components of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field, the raw data points representing the vehicle'"'"'s current heading;
(b) averaging sets of a predetermined number of collected raw data points to obtain a plurality of averaged data points;
(c) identifying the averaged data points as candidate data points if the averaged data points meet predetermined spacing criteria;
(d) calculating center point coordinates for a circle upon which three candidate data points lie by solving the equation x2+y2+Ax+By+C=0 for A, B, and C, using the coordinate values (x,y) for the three candidate data points, and defining the center point coordinates as (−
A/2, −
B/2); and
(e) determining offset compensation values to offset all raw data points obtained from the magnetic sensors by comparing the center point calculated in step (i) to an origin reference point. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
(f) prior to performing steps (d) and (e), determining whether three candidate data points define a triangle meeting predetermined triangle criteria; and
(g) if the three candidate data points do not define a triangle that meets the predetermined triangle criteria, repeatedly discarding and replacing candidate data points with newly obtained candidate data points until three candidate data points are identified that define a triangle meeting the predetermined triangle criteria.
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44. The method as defined in claim 43, wherein the predetermined triangle criterion that the triangle must meet is to be substantially non-obtuse.
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45. The method as defined in claim 44, wherein a triangle is considered to be substantially non-obtuse and thereby meet the predetermined criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relation {square root over (a2+L +b2+L )}/c≧
- 0.92, where c is the longest side.
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46. The method as defined in claim 43, wherein a triangle meets the predetermined triangle criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relation {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
- 3, where a is the shortest side.
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47. The method as defined in claim 43, wherein a triangle meets the predetermined triangle criteria if the sides of the triangle a, b, and c satisfy the relations {square root over (a2+L +b2+L )}/c≧
- 0.92 and {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
3, where a is the shortest side.
- 0.92 and {square root over (b2+L +c2+L )}/a<
Specification