DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: In the second line, the article “A” appears to be erroneously capitalized. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2, 4, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20150362320 A1 to Garrett, David et al. (“Garrett”) in view of US 20200174094 A1 to Tchilian, Emil (“Tchilian”), further in view of US 20050060092 A1 to Hablani, Hari (“Hablani”).
Regarding claim 1, Garrett teaches navigational initialization system comprising:
a reference oscillator to generate timing signals (Garrett [0039]: “The Kalman filter outputs the current PVA and attitude estimates 62 at a filter update rate that is synchronized to a clock signal from a clock 64.”);
an altitude reference system to generate altitude information (Garrett [0029]: “The platform's navigation system knows the platform's approximate position in a three-dimensional coordinate system 22 such as given by latitude 24, longitude 26 and altitude 28. Typically, the navigation system will also know the platform's approximate velocity, acceleration and attitude as well. Any number of three-dimensional coordinate systems may be used to represent PVA and attitude.” A person of ordinary skill in the art (APOSITA) would have recognized that the position referred to by Garrett includes an altitude. Thus, Garret inherently teaches some kind of altitude reference system in order to obtain an altitude solution.);
a celestial navigation system (CNS) including,
a star tracker configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker (Garrett [0047]: “The stellar camera can be used to image the star field to provide a precise attitude estimate to align the position estimate to the NEO orbital data.” APOSITA would have understood that the attitude measured by the stellar camera is representative of the orientation of the stellar camera.).
Garrett does not appear to expressly teach the star tracker is configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker with respect to an earth centered inertial (ECI) frame.
However, Tchilian teaches the star tracker is configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker with respect to an earth centered inertial (ECI) frame (Tchilian [0020]: “As can be appreciated by one of skill in the art after consideration of the present disclosure, the determined overall attitude of the multiple mode star tracker 108 can be expressed as the attitude quaternion of the boresight 118 of the multiple mode star tracker 108 in terms of an earth centered inertial (ECI) coordinate frame.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the navigation system comprising a stellar camera of Garrett that aids in determining attitude with the star tracker that outputs its own attitude in terms of an ECI frame taught by Tchilian. Doing so would have provided a common frame for determining attitude, improving the compatibility of the system with other navigation components.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the above combination of Garrett and Tchilian further teaches an inertial sensor assembly (ISA) used to determine at least an attitude (Garrett [0030]: “The navigation system integrates the inertial measurements to update the navigation PVA and attitude over time.”).
This combination does not appear to expressly teach that the ISA is used to determine at least an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame.
However, Hablani teaches that the ISA is used to determine at least an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame (Hablani FIG. 21: Hablani depicts the inertial navigation component 101 using INS gyros in an attitude estimation and error correction algorithm to generate an attitude estimation. The attitude obtained is disclosed as in terms of a local vertical frame in [0070] of Hablani.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system comprising an inertial navigation component for aiding in the determination of attitude taught by the above combination of Garrett and Tchilian with the inertial navigation component that determines an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame taught by Hablani. Doing so would have provided a calculated attitude in a standard frame of reference, improving compatibility with other navigational instruments.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the above combination of Garret, Tchilian, and Hablani further teaches a controller configured to generate an initialization signal (Garrett FIGS. 3-4: Position error taken as the initialization signal.) using the timing signals generated by the reference oscillator, the altitude information generated from the altitude reference system, and at least one output of the CNS (Garrett [0020], [0029], [0046]-[0047]: APOSITA would have understood that the current position estimate, which includes altitude, would have comprised data from the altitude reference system as well as NEO bearing measurements and inertial data in order to generate the position error using the iterative estimator.), the initialization signal configured to initialize a navigation system (Garrett [0033]: “Our approach calculates a bearing estimate 36 from the current position estimate 30 to each of the known positions 38 of the NEOs from their orbits and the external clock signal. The difference between the measured bearings 32 and the estimated bearings 36 results in a mathematical expression (e.g. a statistical estimator) that can then be solved for the platform's position error 40.”).
Regarding claim 2, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 1, further comprising:
a memory configured to at least store operating instructions implemented by the controller (Garrett [0040]: Garrett teaches various navigation operations being performed by processors. Processors inherently have a memory for storing operating instructions.).
Regarding claim 4, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 1, wherein the star tracker and the ISA are collocated (Garrett [0030], [0032]: Garrett teaches the IMU and the stellar camera are both provided (broadly interpreted as “collocated”) on the platform.).
Regarding claim 6, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 1, further comprising:
A blending filter, the controller configured to use the blending filter to continuously propagate and correct for errors in a navigation solution from the navigation system (Garrett FIG. 3, [0045]: “The computer processor 74 is configured to solve the mathematical expression to produce a position error that is reported back to the navigation system 52, and more particularly to the position state of Kalman Filter 60 to correct the position estimate and to reduce the uncertainty region of the corrected position estimate.” Kalman filter taken as the blending filter.).
Claims 3, 5, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20150362320 A1 to Garrett, David et al. (“Garrett”) in view of US 20200174094 A1 to Tchilian, Emil (“Tchilian”) and US 20050060092 A1 to Hablani, Hari (“Hablani”), further in view of US 20200206945 A1 to Xiong, Youjun et al. (“Xiong”).
Regarding claim 3, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 1.
While teaching using at least one CNS output to acquire a three-dimensional position and a velocity, this combination does not appear to expressly teach wherein the controller is configured to determine a position vector and a local vertical velocity vector from the at least one output of the CNS.
However, Xiong teaches wherein the controller is configured to determine a position vector and a local vertical velocity vector from the at least one output of the CNS (Xiong [0028]: “As an example, the angular velocity . . . and the acceleration . . . obtained by the IMU . . . can be converted into . . . the position vector p=(px, py, pz)T and the velocity vector v=(vx, vy, vz)T in the navigation system . . . .”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system that represents a platform three dimensional position and a velocity determined from at least an IMU system taught by the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani with the system that represents a platform three dimensional position and velocity each as three dimensional position and velocity vectors (including a vertical velocity vector vz) taught by Xiong. Doing so would have allowed the system to represent position and velocity in a standard form, improving its compatibility with other systems.
Regarding claim 5, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 1.
While teaching an IMU used in the position estimation, this combination does not appear to expressly teach wherein the ISA further comprises:
three gyroscopes used to determine angular motion of the CNS; and
three accelerometers used to determine tilt angles of the CNS.
However, Xiong teaches wherein the ISA further comprises:
three gyroscopes used to determine angular motion of the CNS (Xiong [0019]: “In general, one IMU includes . . . three single-axis gyroscopes. . . . the gyroscopes detect the angular velocities of the carrier . . . .”); and
three accelerometers used to determine tilt angles of the CNS (Xiong [0019]: “In general, one IMU includes three single-axis accelerometers . . . [i]t detects the angular velocities and the accelerations of the object in a three-dimensional space, thereby calculating the pose . . . of the object.” See also [0027], the Euler angle (the 3D orientation, taken as the tilt angles is calculated based on the accelerometer data.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system that uses an IMU to determine location and attitude data taught by the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani with the IMU comprising three accelerometers and three gyroscopes for determining angular motion and tilt angles taught by Xiong. Doing so would have improved the position estimation of the system by providing multiple sensors used to estimate position and angular motion.
Regarding claim 7, the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the navigation initialization system of claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to estimate at least one of navigation errors (Garrett FIG. 3: Position error taken as navigation error.), inertial sensor errors , and star tracker errors by propagating the navigation solution from the navigation system using the ISA and the blending filter to estimate the at least one of a navigation error (Garrett FIG. 3: Position estimate, made in part using the IMU, propagated into an estimated NEO bearing which is in turn used to compute position error.), an inertial sensor error, and a star tracker error.
This combination does not appear to expressly teach the navigation solution using gyroscope and accelerometer outputs from the ISA.
However, Xiong teaches an IMU that comes to a navigation solution using gyroscope and accelerometer outputs from the ISA (Xiong [0028]: “As an example, the angular velocity . . . and the acceleration . . . obtained by the IMU . . . can be converted into . . . the position vector p=(px, py, pz)T and the velocity vector v=(vx, vy, vz)T in the navigation system . . . .”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system with IMU that measures a position taught by the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, Hablani with the IMU that comprises gyroscopes and accelerometers taught by Xiong that generates a position taught by Xiong. Doing so would have improved the position estimation by providing multiple sensor systems by which the position could be measured.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20070150128 A1 to Pepe, Richard et al. (“Pepe”) in view of US 20250128832 A1 to Garrett, David et al. (“Garrett”) and US 20200174094 A1 to Tchilian, Emil (“Tchilian”), further in view of US 20050060092 A1 to Hablani, Hari (“Hablani”).
Regarding claim 8, Pepe teaches a system comprising:
a vehicle control system configured to control operation of an associated vehicle based at least in part on an output of the navigation system (Pepe [0024]: “In the example of FIG. 1, attitude control, translational control (thrusting delta-V maneuvers), and momentum management for the spacecraft 102 are provided by a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the spacecraft 102. For example, the spacecraft 102 includes an attitude control system to control an attitude and a position of the spacecraft 102 in orbit.”).
Pepe does not appear to expressly teach the system comprising:
a reference oscillator to generate altitude information; and
a celestial navigation system (CNS) including,
a star tracker configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker with respect to an earth centered inertial (ECI) frame, and
an inertial sensor assembly (ISA) used to determine at least an attitude to a local vertical frame;
a controller configured to generate an initialization signal using the timing signals generated by the reference oscillator, the altitude information generated from the altitude reference system, and at least one output of the CNS;
a memory configured to at least store operating instructions implemented by the controller;
a navigation system in communication with the controller, the generate initialization signal configured to initialize the navigation system.
However, Garrett teaches a reference oscillator to generate timing signals (Garrett [0039]: “The Kalman filter outputs the current PVA and attitude estimates 62 at a filter update rate that is synchronized to a clock signal from a clock 64.”);
an altitude reference system to generate altitude information (Garrett [0029]: “The platform's navigation system knows the platform's approximate position in a three-dimensional coordinate system 22 such as given by latitude 24, longitude 26 and altitude 28. Typically, the navigation system will also know the platform's approximate velocity, acceleration and attitude as well. Any number of three-dimensional coordinate systems may be used to represent PVA and attitude.” A person of ordinary skill in the art (APOSITA) would have recognized that the position referred to by Garrett includes an altitude. Thus, Garret inherently teaches some kind of altitude reference system in order to obtain an altitude solution.); and
a celestial navigation system (CNS) including,
a star tracker configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker (Garrett [0029]: “The platform's navigation system knows the platform's approximate position in a three-dimensional coordinate system 22 such as given by latitude 24, longitude 26 and altitude 28. Typically, the navigation system will also know the platform's approximate velocity, acceleration and attitude as well. Any number of three-dimensional coordinate systems may be used to represent PVA and attitude.” A person of ordinary skill in the art (APOSITA) would have recognized that the position referred to by Garrett includes an altitude. Thus, Garret inherently teaches some kind of altitude reference system in order to obtain an altitude solution.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system for controlling satellite position and attitude taught by Pepe with the system for determining satellite position and attitude taught by Garrett. Doing so would have improved the navigational accuracy of the system.
This combination does not appear to expressly teach the star tracker is configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker with respect to an earth centered inertial (ECI) frame.
However, Tchilian teaches the star tracker is configured to determine an orientation of the star tracker with respect to an earth centered inertial (ECI) frame (Tchilian [0020]: “As can be appreciated by one of skill in the art after consideration of the present disclosure, the determined overall attitude of the multiple mode star tracker 108 can be expressed as the attitude quaternion of the boresight 118 of the multiple mode star tracker 108 in terms of an earth centered inertial (ECI) coordinate frame.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the navigation system comprising a stellar camera of the above combination of Pepe and Garrett that aids in determining attitude with the star tracker that outputs its own attitude in terms of an ECI frame taught by Tchilian. Doing so would have provided a common frame for determining attitude, improving the compatibility of the system with other navigation components.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the above combination of Garrett and Tchilian further teaches an inertial sensor assembly (ISA) used to determine at least an attitude (Garrett [0030]: “The navigation system integrates the inertial measurements to update the navigation PVA and attitude over time.”).
This combination does not appear to expressly teach that the ISA is used to determine at least an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame.
However, Hablani teaches that the ISA is used to determine at least an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame (Hablani FIG. 21: Hablani depicts the inertial navigation component 101 using INS gyros in an attitude estimation and error correction algorithm to generate an attitude estimation. The attitude obtained is disclosed as in terms of a local vertical frame in [0070] of Hablani.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have combined the system comprising an inertial navigation component for aiding in the determination of attitude taught by the above combination of Pepe, Garrett, and Tchilian with the inertial navigation component that determines an attitude with respect to a local vertical frame taught by Hablani. Doing so would have provided a calculated attitude in a standard frame of reference, improving compatibility with other navigational instruments.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the above combination of Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani further teaches a controller configured to generate an initialization signal (Garrett FIGS. 3-4: Position error taken as the initialization signal.) using the timing signals generated by the reference oscillator, the altitude information generated from the altitude reference system, and at least one output of the CNS (Garrett [0020], [0029], [0046]-[0047]: APOSITA would have understood that the current position estimate, which includes altitude, would have comprised data from the altitude reference system as well as NEO bearing measurements and inertial data in order to generate the position error using the iterative estimator.);
a memory configured to at least store operating instructions implemented by the controller (Garrett [0040]: Garrett inherently teaches a memory by teaching a processor performing operations used in navigation.);
a navigation system in communication with the controller, the generated initialization signal configured to initialize the navigation system (Garrett [0033]: “Our approach calculates a bearing estimate 36 from the current position estimate 30 to each of the known positions 38 of the NEOs from their orbits and the external clock signal. The difference between the measured bearings 32 and the estimated bearings 36 results in a mathematical expression (e.g. a statistical estimator) that can then be solved for the platform's position error 40.”).
Regarding claim 9, the above combination of Pepe, Garrett, Tchilian, and Hablani teaches the system of claim 8, wherein the star tracker and the ISA are collocated (Garrett [0030], [0032]: Garrett teaches the IMU and the stellar camera are both provided (broadly interpreted as “collocated”) on the platform.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Alexander, Steven. US 20070252754 A1. System And Method For Advanced Tight Coupling Of GPS And Navigation Based On Dead Reckoning.
Hall, Eldon et al.. US 4470562 A. Polaris Guidance System.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY RICHARD HINTON whose telephone number is (703)756-1051. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:30-4:30.
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/HENRY R HINTON/ Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/HUNTER B LONSBERRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3665