The present invention relates to velocity and position data frame of references, and more particularly, to removing effects of gimbal rotations from angular rate and attitude data.
Precision imaging systems, such as RADARs (radio detection and ranging), LIDARs (light detection and ranging), etc., are generally mounted on gimbals so that the detection device will remain suspended in a plane regardless of any motion of a vehicle on which the device sits. This allows the detection device to produce high resolution imagery that is not distorted due to the vehicle movements or accelerations.
In addition, the detection device usually requires accurate velocity data of the detection device for image stabilization purposes. Thus, such radar or lidar systems will have inertial sensors like gyroscopes and accelerometers mounted within the imaging system's gimbal assembly and next to the detection device of the imaging system to provide vehicle position and velocity data in the gimbal frame of reference. While this solves the need of the imaging system for accurate attitude data (e.g., position of aircraft or vehicle relative to a frame of reference—the horizon or direction of motion), velocity and position data at the detection device, this data does not reflect the actual vehicle attitude, velocity, or position since the inertial sensors are mounted on the gimbal. As a result, the vehicle typically has another set of accelerometers and gyroscopes that provide attitude, velocity and position data of the vehicle.
Of course, two sets of inertial sensors increases costs and complexity for imaging systems. It would be desirable to eliminate the need for a separate set of inertial sensors that provide vehicle attitude, angular rate data, velocity and position, and to acquire this data from the sensors mounted on the gimbal assembly.
Within embodiments described below, a method for transforming gimbaled data output from an inertial sensor positioned on a gimbaled assembly within a moving vehicle into a frame of reference with respect to the moving vehicle is provided. The method includes receiving data from an inertial sensor mounted on a gimbal assembly that is positioned within a moving vehicle. Motion of the inertial sensor is due to motion of the gimbal assembly and motion of the moving vehicle, and thus data output from the inertial sensor reflects the motion of the gimbal assembly and the motion of the moving vehicle. The method further includes removing effects of the motion of the gimbal assembly from the data to produce data approximately reflecting motion of the moving vehicle.
In another embodiment, the method includes receiving data output from the inertial sensor positioned on the gimbaled assembly. The data reflects motion of the gimbaled assembly and motion of the moving vehicle. The method also includes receiving data output from an angular sensor that indicates an angular offset of the gimbaled assembly with respect to the moving vehicle and then synchronizing the data output from the inertial sensor and the data output from the angular sensor. The method further includes removing effects of the motion of the gimbaled assembly from the data output from the inertial sensor to produce data approximately reflecting motion of the moving vehicle.
In another respect, the embodiments may take the form of a radar assembly. The radar assembly includes a radar device mounted on a gimbaled assembly, an Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (EGI) mounted on the gimbaled assembly, and a processor. The EGI provides data in a gimbaled frame of reference to the radar device, and the processor also receives the data in the gimbaled frame of reference and removes effects of gimbaled motion within the data.
These and other aspects will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the following detailed description, with reference where appropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, it should be understood that the embodiments noted herein are not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed.
Precision imaging systems, such as RADARs (radio detection and ranging), LIDARs (light detection and ranging), etc., are used for high resolution ground mapping and imaging. One example radar system is the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is used for environmental monitoring, earth-resource mapping, or other applications that require broad-area imaging at high resolutions.
The SAR antenna 100 requires precise antenna velocity/position (relative to targets on the earth) over short periods of time for image stabilization purposes. Thus, an Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS) (referred to as an “EGI”) 104 is mounted directly on the antenna gimbal assembly 102 to provide such data in the gimbal frame of reference to the antenna 100. The EGI 104 provides precision navigation information by integrating GPS satellite signals and INS data. The EGI 104 includes inertial sensors like gyroscopes and accelerometers to provide vehicle position and velocity data to the SAR antenna 100.
It should be noted that an INS that is not coupled with a GPS may also be mounted on the antenna gimbal assembly 102 to provide proper data to the antenna 100. Including GPS data, such as by employing an EGI on the assembly, may not be necessary in all applications. GPS data may be used, for example, as an accurate, stable, common time line to synchronize independent systems. Other techniques may be possible as well, however, GPS data satisfies needed accuracy. Furthermore, within embodiments disclosed below, only time data within the GPS data may be used. In other embodiments, position, velocity and time data may be used depending on specific applications of the antenna.
The EGI 104 thus provides accurate velocity, attitude and acceleration data of the phase center of the antenna relative to an Earth-based frame of reference (e.g., local-level) that is required for SAR processing. Such data does not reflect the vehicle attitude since the EGI 104 is mounted on the moving gimbal.
In an exemplary embodiment, data output from the EGI 104 is processed to provide actual vehicle navigation data (or data in the vehicle's frame of reference), thus eliminating the need for a separate set of inertial sensors that provide vehicle navigation data. The exemplary embodiments provide “degimbalized” velocity, attitude and acceleration of the vehicle (e.g., aircraft) relative to an Earth-based frame of reference-local-level frame that is required for common cockpit displays and flight controls.
Generally, motion of the EGI 104 is due to the aircraft motion and the gimbal motion, and thus outputs of the EGI 104 reflect the aircraft and gimbal motion. To provide navigation information relating solely to the aircraft, effects of the gimbal motion within the EGI outputs can be removed.
The processor 200 will then remove the effects of the gimbal motion within the EGI outputs by subtracting out the gimbal reference angles. For example, the gimbal may be rotating at 30° per second, and the EGI may indicate a 35° per second rotation. The difference in rotation is due to the aircraft motion. Thus, removing the effects of the gimbal motion upon the EGI outputs would indicate that the aircraft is rotating at 5° per second, which is referred to as a degimbalized EGI output.
Exemplary embodiments described below combine (i) outputs of inertial instrumentation (e.g., the EGI), which is mounted on a rotating (with respect to the vehicle) imaging system, with (ii) outputs of angle sensors that indicate the angle between the imaging system and the vehicle body, in a manner so that the outputs of the inertial sensors are transformed into a frame of reference so as to appear as if the inertial sensors are mounted on the vehicle body. The two sets of outputs are combined using multiple curve-fitting and matched digital filtering to form an accurate, time-synchronized gimbal angle and gimbal angular rate values, which can then be used to transform the gimbal-referenced EGI attitude and angular rate data into high-rate vehicle-referenced attitude and rate data, thereby eliminating the need for a second INS or EGI unit to provide vehicle navigation data.
The EGI processor 402 includes inertial measurement processing 406 and navigation processing 408. The inertial sensor processing 406 receives the outputs from the inertial sensor electronics (e.g., integrated velocity and angular position), and passes them to the navigation processing 408. The navigation processing system 408 extracts navigation information pertaining to the radar's frame of reference, including angular acceleration, angular rate, attitude, velocity, body accelerations, and Velocity UTC TT (Universal Time Coordinated Time Tag, which is the time that velocity was valid, expressed in UTC time—Greenwich Mean Time). Combined, the inertial measurement processing 406 and the navigation processing 408 may be an INS module that produces attitude and angular rate data with accurate UTC based time-of-validity data, for example.
The gimbal processor 404 receives outputs from the gimbal angle sensor. The outputs include the gimbal angle and its time-of-validity in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), which allows accurate time alignment between the independent systems. The gimbal processor 404 also receives outputs from the EGI processor 402 and then transforms the EGI outputs into a frame of reference relative to the vehicle. The process of transforming the EGI outputs into a frame of reference relative to the vehicle is referred to herein as “degimbalization.”
The time-tagged (TT) gimbal outputs are input to the gimbal processor 404 at a high rate. The gimbal angles are time-aligned to the current EGI by applying a linear Least Squares Curve fit to a short history of gimbal angle data and extrapolating the gimbal angle to the time-of-validity of current EGI data. Extrapolation provides an estimate of the gimbal angle that was present at the time that the EGI inertial angles were formed. A slope of the least squares curve fit provides a measurement of the gimbal angle rate with a time of validity at the center-point of the data set used for the fit. Next, a least squares curve fit is applied to a short history of the gimbal rate values to extrapolate a gimbal rate with a time-of-validity that matches the current EGI angular rate values.
Gimbal angle data is sampled, processed and sent to the gimbal processor 404 over a serial bus. Thus, a time-of-validity (TOV) for the gimbal data lags the current EGI data by some amount. In addition, the EGI processor 402 and the gimbal processor 404 are independent from each other, and thus a TOV alignment between the two processors can change over time. Small errors in TOV alignment can produce large difference errors when the gimbal angle is changing. However, using the least squares curve fit also provides a TOV alignment between the data sets.
Next, a series of direction cosine matrices (DCM) are constructed and used to transform data within one set of x,y,z axes to another set of x,y,z axes. Within the following description of the degimbalization process, the following acronyms are used:
Initially, a boresight DCM (CG
Next, the gimbal's angular rotation (G-Ang) is used to form CB
Note that multiplying a vector by a DCM translates the vector from one reference frame into another reference frame, and multiplying DCMs together forms a new DCM that “chains” reference frame translations together. For example:
CB
In other words, multiplying the (i) mathematical transformation that rotates the EGI body x,y,z axes to coincide with the gimbal's x,y,x axes by the (i) mathematical transformation that rotates the gimbal's x,y,z axes to coincide with the aircraft's x,y,z axes gives: the mathematical transformation that rotates the EGI body x,y,z axes to coincide with the aircraft's x,y,z axes.
Consequently, combining the boresight DCM (CG
Meanwhile, the gimbal rotational rate (G-Rate) is corrected for misalignment using the boresight DCM (CG
Using mathematical transformations to transform data from one coordinate frame to another, the gimbal data is then used to transform the EGI data into the vehicle's frame of reference. First, using the (i) mathematical transformation that rotates the EGI body x,y,z axes to coincide with the gimbal's x,y,x axes and the (i) mathematical transformation that rotates the gimbal's x,y,z axes to coincide with the aircraft's x,y,z axes, the mathematical transformation that rotates the EGI body x,y,z axes to coincide with the aircraft's x,y,z axes is formed, as shown at block 506. Next, CB
Using the above techniques, simulations were executed and compared with outputs from a second EGI used to simulate outputs expected from a degimbalized EGI. For example, both the simulator EGI and the degimbalized EGI were positioned on a motion table. The normal and degimbalized outputs were recorded as the table was rolled side-to-side. Expected “benchmark” results were obtained due to a high-quality of the angular data from the gimbal-simulator EGI. The testing done in the lab is expected to be reasonably close to dynamics in the real system. In this example, only one gimbal angle (roll) was varied; however the algorithm is structured to handle all three axes if needed. Results of the simulations are illustrated in
Within embodiments described above, a method and system for degimbalization of outputs from sensors mounted on a gimbal within a moving aircraft. Of course, however, the described method can be used to process outputs from sensors mounted on any kind of moving platform, in order to determine both sensor object and platform navigation information.
It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and it is intended to be understood that the following claims including all equivalents define the scope of the invention.