Patent ID: 8275582

Claim:
A method for estimating the inception of gimbal motion of an inertial measurement unit (IMU), the method comprising the steps of: independently filtering, in a computer process, three-axis angular orientation rate information or data from component gyroscopes in the IMU, to provide a first output; adaptively detecting, in another computer process, discontinuities in the first output; estimating a regularity of gimbal motion to provide a second output; comparing the discontinuities detected in the first output to the estimated regularity of gimbal motion provided in the second output, in another computer process, to determine which of the discontinuities detected in the first output are true discontinuities and which of the discontinuities in the first output that are false discontinuities, and to identify other discontinuities which have been missed in the first output; wherein the true and missed discontinuities are estimates of the inception of gimbal motion of the IMU.