Patent ID: 8521427
Filing Date: 2013-08-27
Classification: B60R,G01C,G01S

Abstract:
1. A method for navigation of a vehicle using cellular networks, the method comprising: determining, with an inertial navigation system, an estimate of a location of the vehicle; steering, by a controller, a transmit antenna and a receive antenna at an angle such that they are both pointed towards a cellular tower; transmitting, with the transmit antenna, a transmit signal to the cellular tower requesting for a cell identification (CID) of the cellular tower; receiving, with the receive antenna, a receive signal from the cellular tower containing the CID of the cellular tower; determining, with at least one digital computer, a location of the cellular tower by looking up the CID of the cellular tower in a lookup table; determining, with the at least one digital computer, a difference in time from a time the transmit signal was sent by the transmit antenna to a time the receive signal was received by the receive antenna; calculating, with the at least one digital computer, a distance from the vehicle to the cellular tower by using the difference in time; and refining, with the at least one digital computer, the estimate of the location of the vehicle by using the location of the cellular tower, the distance from the vehicle to the cellular tower, and the angle of the transmit antenna and the receive antenna.