COMPASS SYSTEM

Abstract: Attitude and heading apparatus for use in a moving vehicle comprising: means for measuring the Earth's magnetic field (14); means for measuring vehicular angular rate (12); means for converting the measured value of the Earth's magnetic field into a first quaternion (20); means for converting the measured value of vehicular angular rate into a second quaternion (20); means for combining the first and second quaternion to derive a third quaternion representing vehicle attitude and means for outputting vehicle attitude information (22).

Description: The present invention relates to a compass system that is, attitude and heading apparatus, for use in a moving vehicle e.g. an aircraft. The combination of gyroscope and magnetic measurements has long been used to provide a north indicating compass system for use on moving vehicles. Specifically such system usury comprise a directional gyro and a pendulous flux valve to measure the magnetic field. The perceived limitations of existing system are: a) Gradual loss of accuracy in turns and other manoeuvres; b) Requirements for lengthy and onerous ground calibration procedures; c) Possible complete loss of correct heading during aerobatic or inadvertent manoeuvres. Recovery requires a lengthy reset procedure to restore correct heading indication. With such existing gyromagnetic system the flux valve is subject to errors caused by misalignment or mispositioning in the moving vehicle; spurious magnetic fields and electrical anomalies. US-A4 143 467 describes apparatus and a method for compensating the flux valve in which the vehicle is orientated in accordance with a plurality of headings and the flux valve output and gyro output are measured at each heading to provide heading error signals used to compensate the heading output of the flux valve. A similar heading reference system is disclosed in US-A-4347 730 employing a magnetic compass, magnetic flux valve and gyroscope in which the vehicle housing the system, such as an aircraft or tank, is orientated in one direction, the compass and gyroscope outputs compared and an error signal generated. The vehicle is reorientated and the process repeated until sufficient information is available to recalibrate the system. These procedures still require the vehicle operator to carry out compass calibration manoeuvres which can be time consuming and relatively imprecise operations. On the contrary, the present invention involves the use of one or more rate gyroscopes and a magnetometer and means for utilising the outputs from these instruments automatically to calculate vehicle attitude. In the past there have been problem in combining these two different types of data in a mathematically tractable and a computationally efficient manner in strapdown instrumentation. According to the present invention there is provided attitude and heading apparatus, which apparatus includes magnetometer means, gyroscope means and a control unit, for use in a moving vehicle, characterised in that the magnetometer means measures the Earth's magnetic field in three axes to produce a measured value output; the gyroscope means measures vehicular angular rate about at least two orthogonal axes to produce a measured value output, which gyroscope means includes at least one gyroscopes movably mounted by means of a turntable to permit the spin axis of the gyroscope to be maintained in non-alignment with the Earth's magnetic field; and the control unit includes means for receiving the measured value output of the Earth's magnetic field in three axes from the magnetometer means and the measured value output of vehicular angular rate in at least two axes from the gyroscope means and combining them, using quaternion calculus in which the outputs from the magnetometer and gyroscope means are each converted into a quaternion and combined to form a produce providing the vehicle attitude information. The vehicle attitude is expressed as a quaternion, representing the vehicle rotation between an initial, reference attitude and the actual current attitude. This quaternion comprises two parts, the first derived purely from the magnetic data and the second derived from the vehicle angular rate data. These two are then combined to form the overall attitude output. Generally, quaternions can be used to present a rotation 0 about any arbitrary axis A in the form: The first and second quaternions are multiplied to form the third quaternion. A quaternion produce is as follows: (V₁ + S₁) (V₂ + S₂) = (V₁ x V₂ + S₁ V₂ + S₂ V₁) (new vector part) + (S₁ S₂ - V₁.V₂) (new scalar part) Where V₂ and S₂ represent vectors and scalars respectively. Movably mounting the gyroscope permits the spin axis of the gyroscope to be maintained in non-alignement with the Earth's magnetic field which ensures that rotation about the Earth's magnetic field can be measured. Advantageously the turntable is fixed to a rotatable shaft. Preferably the gyroscope means includes means for rotating the turntable, and pick-off means operative to supply signals indictive of the angular position of the turntable. Conveniently the gyroscope means is operable to measure vehicular angular rate about three orthogonal axes. Preferably the magnetometer means and gyrosocope means are strapdown means. A particular embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of the main components of an attitude and heading apparatus or compass system of the present invention; Figure 2 is a diagram of part of the apparatus of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating the steps used to derive vehicle attitude from the outputs of the components of the apparatus of Figures 1 and 2; and Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating the use of level sensor output in the apparatus of the Invention. Referring to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing, an attitude and heading apparatus or compass systems of the present invention, generally indicated at 10 includes a two axis rate gyroscope 12 to measure vehicle angular rate, strapdown magnetometer means 14 to measure the Earth's magnetic field in three orthogonal axes; a level indicator 18; a control unit 20 comprising a digital processor to process the instrument outputs and the operator inputs and to control system operation; an operator interface unit 22 comprising a display for displaying vehicle heading and other system data and means for an operator to input commands. The operator interface unit 22 comprises means for an operator to: (i) Input commands to initiate, control and switch off the system; (ii) Receive data on the measurements made by the system, including vehicle heading; (iii) Receive data on the current operational status of the system. Referring to Figure 2, the gyroscope 12 is mounted on a turntable 24 which is fixed to a rotatable shaft 26. Bearings 28 and 30 permit rotation of the gyroscope 12 about the axis A. A torque motor (not shown) drives the turntable 24 and receives power through slip rings 32. An angle pick-off arrangement (not shown) is provided to supply signals indicative of the angular position of the turntable. In use, the position of the turntable 24 is controlled by the control unit 20 so that the spin axis of the gyroscope 12 is maintained substantially orthogonal to the axis of the Eath's magnetic field. This feature ensures that rotation about the axis of the Earth's magnetic field can be detected even though the magnetometer means 14 would be insensitive to such rotation. In use, the control unit 20 performs the following functions: (i) Controls operation of the overall system in accordance with the operator instructions received from the operator interface unit 22 and the signals received from other units of the system; (ii) Inputs data from the instruments, turntable 24 and unit 22; (iii) Outputs data to the turntable 24 and unit 22; (iv) Outputs signals to all units of the system to command their initiation, operation and switch-off in the required manner. This function to include commands to perform unit self test functions and to report status; (v) Computes vehicle attitude estimates from the input intrumental data. The precise algorithms are selectable in response to the overall control function (i), to reflect operator instructions and according to the current availability of valid signals from the various instruments; (vi) Controls power supplies (not shown) to provide the required electrical power to the other units of the system. An optional feature is an output interface, driven by the control unit 20, to permit transmission and receipt of data to other system, should this apparatus be required to form part of a larger system. In this case, some or all the functions of the operator interface unit 22 may be achieved via this interface. The principles of operation of the apparatus 10 will now be described with reference to Figure 3. The apparatus 10 utilises some or all of the magnetometer, gyroscope and level data to compute vehicle attitude. Several algorithms are available for use according to requirements and conditions. In straight and level flight, magnetometer, gyroscope and level data should all be available. The level data provides a long term reference check and can be used to correct drift errors. In manoeuvring flight, the level data is unreliable and the system must operate in a different mode and compute vehicle attitude from magnetic and gyroscope data alone. If any of the instruments is inoperative, the system operates in a reversionary mode with the inputs which are available. The control unit 20 collects information regarding flight characteristics and the status of the instruments and chooses the appropriate mode of operation. For manoeuvring flight, the current measurement of the magnetic vector is input, normalised and converted into a first quaternion according to the following equation: - q m = NORM (B + R) where B represents the normalised input magnetic vector in body axes; R represents the normalises magnetic vector in reference axes; NORM represents vector normalisation. The body angular rate vector, w b must be formed from a combination of gyro and magnetic data, since neither source alone can provide more than two of the required axes of information, The former cannot sense rotation about its spin axis and the latter cannot sense rotation about the magnetic vector. It is in order to ensure that the following procedure is well conditioned that the gyro is to be maintained with its spin axis orthogonal to the magnetic vector. The component of body rate obtainable from the magnetic data is obtained as follows: w m = B′ x NORM(B) (vector cross product) where B′ is the derivative of B and is obtained using appropriate algorithms. The total body rate vector w b may be formed from the gyro and magnetic data in two ways: (i) w b1 = w m + (w G .B + (s.B)(w m .s))B/(1 + (s.B)²) (4) (ii) w b2 = w G + (w m .s + (s.B)(w G .B))s/(1 + (s.B)²) (5) or (iii) by any suitable mix of these two, using w b = K w b1 + (1 - K) w b2 where w G = the rate output, in body axes s = gyro spin axis K = arbitrary constant The position of the gyroscope spin axis s is determined by the position of the turntable 24 and is ideally orthogonal to the magnetic vector B, The s.B terms in equations (4) and (5) above are to take account of cases where the gyroscope spin axis s is skewed relative to the magnetic vector B. The body rate data is input, resolved onto the (R + B) axis and integrated: A′ = w b .(R + B) (1 + R.B) The integration of A′ to form A may be carried out by any of the standard techniques. The A output is used to form the second quaternion according to the following equation q w = (R Sin A/₂ + Cos A/₂) The final output or third quaternion is formed simply by multiplying the two quaternions described above: q = q w q m In level flight, the output from a level sensor is also utilised. Figure 4 illustrates schematically how the output from a level sensor 36 is used via a gain device 38 as an angular rate component to slow the output q (where q = q w q m ) from the gyro and magnetic sensors in an integrator 40. The final output q F form the basis for the next step in the operation. A cut-out device 42 prevents use of level sensor signals in manoeuvring flight.

Claims: Attitude and heading apparatus, for use in a moving vehicle, which apparatus includes magnetometer means (14), gyroscope means and a control unit (20), characterised in that the magnetometer means (14) is adapted to measure the Earth's magnetic field in three axes to produces a measured value output, the gyroscope means is adapted to measure vehicular angular rate about at least two orthogonal axes to produce a measured value output, which gyroscope means includes at least one gyroscope (12) movably mounted by means of a turntable (24) to permit the spin axis of the gyroscope (12) to be maintained in non-alignement with the Earth's magnetic field; and the control unit (20) includes means for receiving the measured value output of the Earth's magnetic field in three axes from the magnetometer means ( 14 ) and the measured value output of vehicle angular rate in at least two axes from the gyroscope means and combining them, using quaternion calculus in which the outputs from the magnetometer gyroscope means are each converted into a quaternion and combined to form a product providing the vehicle attitude information. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the turntable (24) is fixed to a rotatable shaft (26). Apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the gryoscope means includes means for rotating the turntable (24), and pick-off means operative to supply signals indicative of the angular position of the turntable (24). Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the control unit (20) is operative to maintain the spin axis of the gyroscope (12) substantially orthogonal to the axis of the Earth's magnetic field. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the gyroscope means (12) is operable to measure vehicle angular rate about three orthogonal axes. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the magnetometer means (14) and gyroscope means (12) are operable to measure vehicle angular rate about three orthogonal axes. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, including level sensing means (18, 36) wherein the control unit (20) includes an integrator (40) for combining an output from the level sensing means (18, 36) using quaternion calculus, with the product providing the vehicle attitude information to for a further product representing level attitude information.

Inventors: WALPOLE,ANTHONY
Applicants: BRITISH AEROSPACE PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G01C21
IPC codes: G01C21, G01C19, G01C17