Patent ID: 7274439
Filing Date: 2007-09-25
Classification: G01C,G01P,G01S,G06F,G06T

Abstract:
1. A rotational displacement sensing apparatus for an inertial navigation system comprising: an inertial navigation system having a gas bearing supported spherical inertial sensor assembly; one or more image acquisition systems, each image acquisition system adapted to produce a series of overlapping images of the inertial sensor assembly; and a controller coupled to receive the series of overlapping images, the controller adapted to apply a delta detection algorithm to the series of overlapping images to determine the distance, the direction of movement of the inertial sensor assembly and the resulting relative position of the gas bearing supported spherical inertial sensor assembly, said controller further adapted to calculate the rotational velocity of the inertial sensor assembly based on a time sequence between the received series of image signals and the distance moved.