Patent ID: 11909468
Assignee: VIASAT INC.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method for pointing an antenna mounted on a vehicle, the method comprising:
positioning, by a positioner, a beam of the antenna to an initial angular position towards a target satellite based on an initial pointing direction for the antenna, the initial pointing direction being defined in a fixed reference plane and communicating, from the antenna, a signal with the target satellite, wherein the positioner controls an orientation of a pedestal of the antenna; and
executing, by an antenna control unit (ACU), an offset compensation operation of the antenna, the offset compensation operation comprising:
adjusting a pointing direction of the antenna from the initial angular position to a plurality of angular positions and measuring a signal metric of the communicated signal at the plurality of angular positions and selecting a scan offset angle based on the measured signal metric for the plurality of angular positions, the scan offset angle being defined in a local coordinate system for the pedestal of the antenna;
calculating a yaw compensation of the antenna based on the initial pointing direction and on a yaw pointing direction in the fixed reference plane;
rotating the initial pointing direction in the fixed reference plane with a platform orientation matrix that includes the yaw compensation and an attitude of the vehicle measured by an inertial navigation system (INS) into the local coordinate system for the pedestal of the antenna to provide pedestal orientation coordinates;
determining an azimuth and elevation for the antenna based on the pedestal orientation coordinates; and
generating, by the ACU, a control signal characterizing the azimuth and elevation for the positioner that causes the positioner to adjust the pointing direction of the antenna corresponding to the azimuth and elevation for the antenna.