{
  "patent_number": "US 10107627",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Vehicles and Drones Find Their Way Using Many Sensors",
  "original_title": "Adaptive navigation for airborne, ground and dismount applications (ANAGDA)",
  "summary": "This patent describes a layered computer system that combines data from many different sensors and an Inertial Measurement Unit to precisely determine a mobile platform's position, velocity, and orientation, even in challenging environments.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes an adaptive navigation system for mobile platforms like aircraft, ground vehicles, or even dismounted soldiers. It uses a computer onboard the platform with a specific layered architecture to combine various data sources. First, a sensing layer gathers signals from multiple sensors, such as cameras, GPS, or lidar (Claim 5). Next, a processing layer prepares this raw sensor data, potentially using pre-loaded maps or landmark databases (Claim 6). A measurement abstraction layer then converts this data into a standard format, making it independent of the specific sensor hardware. Finally, a fusion layer combines this processed sensor data with movement information from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to calculate the platform's exact position, velocity, and attitude (Claim 1). For example, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) preparing to land on a moving ship could use this system to fuse its camera images of the ship, GPS data, and its own IMU readings to precisely calculate its relative position to the ship, ensuring a safe landing (Claim 11).",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover navigation systems that do not include an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) onboard the mobile platform.",
    "Does not cover systems that lack the specific layered architecture of sensing, processing, measurement abstraction, and fusion layers as described in the claims.",
    "Does not cover navigation systems that rely solely on a single type of sensor without fusing it with IMU data and other sensor measurements.",
    "Does not cover systems where the fusion calculations do not also produce error estimates, such as IMU error or sensor alignment error (Claim 2).",
    "Does not cover navigation systems that do not produce a full 'platform navigation state' including position, velocity, and attitude."
  ],
  "filed": "2017-03-08",
  "granted": "2018-10-23",
  "expires": "2037-03-08",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Northrop Grumman Systems",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/northrop-grumman-systems",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Alex C. Fung",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/alex-c-fung"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bich M. Thai",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/bich-m-thai"
    },
    {
      "name": "Omar Aboutalib",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/omar-aboutalib"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 5,
  "tags": [
    "aerospace",
    "defense",
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "robotics",
    "automotive"
  ],
  "abstract": "An adaptive navigation system for airborne, ground and dismount applications. The system performs adaptive fusion of all sensed signals, information sources, and databases that may be available on a single or multiple cooperative platforms to provide optimal Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) state. To reduce error building over time, the system incorporates the concept of geo-registration fusion into the ANAGDA filter. The architecture of the ANAGDA filter consists of user/application configurable functionalities in hierarchical layers. The sensing layer senses the environment and contains the required databases such as surveyed landmarks, and Digital Terrain Elevation Data/Digital Elevation Model (DTED/DEM). The processing layer has a Smart Sensor Resource Manager which is a performance-based sensor/feature selection module. The measurement abstraction layer isolates the filter from hardware specifics. The fusion layer performs the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data integration with sensor measurements, and feature fusion.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10107627/adaptive-navigation-for-airborne-ground-and-dismount-applications-anagda",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/10107627/adaptive-navigation-for-airborne-ground-and-dismount-applications-anagda/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US10107627",
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}