METAL IMMUNE MAGNETIC TRACKER

Abstract: A head mounted tracker is placed in the operator area near the operator. The tracker is both metal immune and has the capability to mathematically map the operator area. These operations are performed by processing low and high frequency components of the magnetic field in the operator area.

Description: METAL IMMUNE MAGNETIC TRACKER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a magnetic tracker for tracking the orientation and position of a helmet used by vehicle operators in such vehicles as tanks, planes, etc. Trackers are well known in the present area of technology and the operation of a tracker is described in references U.S. Patent 4,287,809, U.S. Patent 4,945,305, and U.S. Patent 3,868,565. However, metal fixed in the operator area can provide erroneous values so that an accurate reading of the correct position and orientation of the operator cannot be made. Presently, a known method to take care of this problem is to map the electromagnetic effects of metal in the operator area. Mapping is representing the magnetic field with a mathematical model. The magnetic field of the area is mapped and the data is used by the tracker to compute accurate position and orientation. Mapping is very cumbersome. It takes a great amount of time and requires numerous pieces of equipment and personnel to map the area correctly. This costs time and money. It would be beneficial to find a way to improve upon the current methods so that time can be saved as well as equipment and personnel. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A metal immune tracker is disclosed including an apparatus attached to an operator for receiving a very low frequency component and a high frequency component of the magnetic field in the operator area and a processor which processes the very low and high frequency components to map the operator area mathematically. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Fig. 1 shows a metal immune tracker of the present invention. Fig. 2 shows the calculations performed in the processing unit of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present invention combines a very low frequency (vlf) component with a high frequency (hf) component of a magnetic field so that a tracker system will be metal immune. Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the invention . A receiver 12 is mounted on a helmet 13. The receiver 12 is what receives the electromagnetic information such as the very low frequency component and the high frequency component of the magnetic field in the operator area. The receiver 12 is typically attached to the operator's helmet 13 so as the helmet 13 moves, the receiver 12 will receive the information required to determine the helmet 13 position and orientation. This operation allows metal immune operation or self mapping so that it is not required to map out the area with excess equipment or personnel. This operation also saves the time of performing manual mapping. Some examples of a receiver 12 would be a flux gate magnetometer or a solid state sensor which are both well known in this area of technology. Once the components of the magnetic field are obtained, it will be necessary to perform calculations on the low frequency component and high frequency component so that previous erroneous data is replaced with the corrected data. As a result, the data is sent from the receiver 12 to pre-amplifiers 22, 23, 24 via cable 21. The reason for three preamplifiers 22, 23, 24 is to accommodate for the x, y, and z signals for the helmet movements and to amplify the signals for processing. The output of the pre-amplifiers 22, 23, 24 are sent to a multiplexer 25 to combine the three signals. The output of the multiplexer 25 is filtered by a bandpass filter 27 to filter out unwanted frequencies. This signal is then amplified by a variable gain amplifier 28. The output from the variable gain amplifier 28 is sent to an analog-to-digital converter 30 whose output is sent to a central processing unit (CPU) 32. As can be seen in Fig. 1, a single A/D converter can be used with a multiplexer to process all three input signals or separate A/D converters can be used to process each input signal The plurality of this set up would be only to increase the speed for processing, but would not fundamentally affect how the present invention operates. The CPU 32 performs the calculations of combining the very low frequency component with the high frequency component to obtain an accurate mapping of the operator area. More details regarding the CPU's computations involved in the mathematical mapping of the area will be discussed in the description of Fig. 2. A magnetic field is generated with low frequency and high frequency components by the control logic 26, D/A converter 43, and is eventually transmitted by the multi-frequency transmitter driver . The control logic 26 used is similar to the control logic used in the Egli reference mentioned in the Background of the Invention and will not be discussed in any further detail presently. If further detail of the control logic is required, the Egli reference provides proper detail. A selector switch 47 is used to control the transmission of the signals to the transmitter 11 by selecting which signal will be sent. The signals are sent through amplifiers 60, 61, and 62 so that the signals have sufficient power for energizing the transmitter 11. The transmitter 11 transmits a magnetic field in the operator area back to the helmet 13. The transmitter sends a magnetic field with both a high frequency component, which allows rapid dynamic response, and a very low frequency component, which is not affected by metal structures in the operator area. Orientation and position information is sent back to the vehicle systems via the interface 33 so that the vehicle operates accordingly with the information. One such example would be to control the instrumentality of an aircraft of which it is connected with. Again, the interface 33 used is similar to the interface used in the Egli reference mentioned in the Background of the Invention and will not be discussed in any further detail presently. If further detail of the interface is required, the Egli reference provides proper detail. Another aspect of the present invention is the ability for self mapping. Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the calculations performed for self mapping. The present invention automatically maps as the operator moves his head around. The operator could also move his head in a methodical area to cover the entire operator area. If all areas are not covered, the mapping will display the area and give cues to the operator to some unmapped areas. The operator merely would need to move his head in those areas so that full coverage could be achieved. As a result, the more the operator moves his head, the greater the area that will be mapped. With continued use, the entire operator area will be adequately mapped. As mentioned before, the vlf and hf are sensed and to be combined for the present invention. In order for this to happen, the vlf and hf must be converted into mathematical data to be computed in the CPU 32 so that the area can be mapped. The vlf solution is shown by R L and v L where R is the rotation orientation and v is the vector position. The low frequency data is used for many reasons. Firstly, the low frequency data is used in tracking to determine exact position and orientation. This is well known in this area of technology and no further discussion will be provided in this area. Also, the vlf is used because non-ferrous metal does not affect low frequency and thus, is metal immune. The hf is used on the other hand due to the higher update rate possible to provide better dynamic response. A free space solution would be used to derive the R L and v L for the vlf. The free space solution is well known in this area of technology and will not be discussed in any further detail. On the other hand, a tracking algorithm based on a mapped field solution is used for the hf. The first time the hf and vlf are run through these mathematical computations, the R L and v L values are used to initialize the tracking algorithm as a point of reference since the vlf is more accurate. However, in computing the R H and v H of the hf field, polynomials need to be computed. The rotation independent hf field is computed by the following equation and is used to calculate the polynomials: H=R L T * F H where F H is the matrix version of the hf field in the helmet coordinate frame, R L is the rotation matrix which represents how the receiver is rotated with respect to the primary frame, and H is in the form of a table with x,y,z coordinates. Polynomials will be produced with what the field should look like with respect to the position. These polynomials are sent back to the tracking algorithm and R H and v H are computed. A vlf or hf solution is selected in the central processing unit 32. The vlf solution is elected for initialization, re-establishment of tracking anytime tracking is interrupted, or large changes in the hf solution. The reason for this selection is because the vlf solution is more stable than the hf solution. The hf solution is selected the rest of the time. Certain solutions are known in this area of technology to combine both the vlf and hf solution. One such method is Kalman filtering. Another method is using a free space algorithm or characterized fields algorithm to generate mapping data. These algorithms map the magnetic field and generate an algorithm based on the map. After the first computations are performed, the output of the select solution is used to reinitialize the tracking algorithm. As mentioned before, the tracking algorithm requires initialization in order to perform accurate calculations. A smoothing means is performed on the output of the sensor solution to provide more accurate data. This data then leaves the CPU 32 and goes through various other operations as described above in the description for Fig. 1. Ultimately, this data will map the pilot area and allow the area to be metal immune. The invention has been described herein in detail in order to comply with the Patent Statutes and to provide those skilled in the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct and use such specialized materials and components as are required. However, it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different materials and components, and that various modifications, both as to the processing details and operating procedures, can be accomplished without departing from the scope of the invention itself.

Claims: CLAIMS The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or right is claimed are defined as follows: 1. A metal immune tracker, comprising: apparatus located in an operator area for receiving a low frequency component and a high frequency component of the magnetic field; transmitter connected to the processing means to transmit a magnetic field with both a low frequency and a high frequency component to an operator in the operator area; and. processing means independently and automatically processing the low and high frequency components and combining the low and high frequency components so that the tracker is metal immune. 2. The tracker of claim 1 wherein the receiving apparatus is a flux gate magnetometer. 3. The tracker of claim 1 wherein the receiving apparatus is a solid state sensor. 4. The tracker of claim 1 wherein the transmitter is two or three magnetic coils. 5. The tracker of claim 1 wherein the receiving apparatus is attached to a helmet worn by the operator. 6. The tracker of claim 3 wherein the solid state sensor is magnetoresistive. 7. A tracker, comprising: apparatus located in an operator area for receiving a low frequency component and a high frequency component of the magnetic field; (Claim 7 continued) transmitter connected to the processing means to transmit a magnetic field with both a low frequency and a high frequency component to an operator in the operator area; and processing means independently and automatically processing the low and high frequency components to mathematically map the operator area. 8. The tracker of claim 7 wherein the receiving apparatus is a flux gate magnetometer. . 9. The tracker of claim 7 wherein the receiving apparatus is a solid state sensor. 10. The tracker of claim 7 wherein the transmitter is two or three magnetic coils. 11. The tracker of claim 7 wherein the receiving apparatus is attached to a helmet worn by the operator. 12. The tracker of claim 9 wherein the solid state sensor is magnetoresistive. 13. A tracker residing in an operator area, comprising: a receiver attached to a helmet an operator is wearing wherein the receiver receives high frequency and low frequency information of a magnetic field in the operator area as the operator moves his or her head; processing means, connected to the receiver, to mathematically map the area the operator is operating in based on a combination of the high frequency and low frequency information received from the receiver; and transmitter connected to the processing means to transmit the mathematically mapped area back to the operator. 14. The tracker of claim 13, wherein the apparatus is a flux gate magnetometer. 15. The tracker of claim 13, wherein the apparatus is a solid state sensor. 16. The tracker of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is two or three magnetic coils. 17. The tracker of claim 15 wherein the solid state sensor is magnetoresistive. 18. A metal immune tracker residing in an operator area, comprising: a receiver attached to a helmet an operator is wearing wherein the receiver receives high frequency and low frequency information of a magnetic field in the operator area as the operator moves his or her head; processing means, connected to the receiver, to mathematically map the area the operator is operating in based on a combination of the high frequency and low frequency information received from the receiver; and transmitter connected to the processing means to transmit the mathematically mapped area back to the operator so that tracking may occur that is metal immune. 19. The tracker of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is a flux gate magnetometer. 20. The tracker of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is a solid state sensor. 21. The tracker of claim 18, wherein the transmitter is two or three magnetic coils. 22. The tracker of claim 20 wherein the solid state sensor is magnetoresistive. 23. A method of creating a metal immune tracker, comprising the steps of: receiving a very low frequency component of the magnetic field in an area to be tracked; receiving a high frequency component of the magnetic field in the area to be tracked; selecting between the high frequency component and the very low frequency component to mathematical map the area to be tracked; fitting the selected component into a mathematical model designating part of the area to be trackei; and combining the selected high frequency components with the selected low frequency components into a mathematical model representing a map of the area to be tracked.

Inventors: LEWANDOWSKI RONALD J, WIER EMMET J, LEWANDOWSKI, RONALD, J., WIER, EMMET, J.
Applicants: HONEYWELL INC, HONEYWELL INC.
Application year: 1999
Main classification: F41G3
IPC codes: F41G3