Angular Position Measurements Research Articles

On-board radar complex for high-precision direction finding of radio sources for autonomous guidance of winged UAVs

The subject of this article is the design of a cheap, simple, and highly accurate on-board radar system for determining the angular position of radio-signal emission stations, which can be used to guide UAVs to a specified area of space. The aim of this study is to develop high-precision functioning algorithms, practical recommendations for implementation, and experimental measurements of the main parameters of the onboard radio direction finders of radio radiation sources placed on winged UAVs. Objectives of the research: 1) analysis of the statistical theory of optimization of signal processing algorithms in radar systems; 2) synthesis of direction-finding algorithms for radio measurement sources capable of performing measurements with high accuracy and in a wide range of unambiguous measurement angles; 3) synthesis of the radio direction finder structural scheme and its simulation modelling; 4) design of radio direction finder receiving antennas capable of operating separately and in a complex; 5) justification of the choice of components for the input paths of receivers, parameters of ADC and microcomputers that make up the main components of the radar complex; 6) manufacturing of a working model of the radar complex; 7) experimental measurements in the laboratory. The methods for solving the tasks are based on the statistical theory of optimization of radio engineering systems for remote sensing and radar, existing software tools for simulation modelling, and the theory of radio measurements. The main idea behind creating a cheap, simple, and highly accurate on-board radar system for radio emitter direction finding is to combine the results of angular position measurements from several amplitude and phase meters. This approach allows us to create an easy-to-implement radio system with the advantages of different measuring instruments. The following results were obtained: 1) theoretical studies and simulation modelling confirmed that by combining measurements from a two-antenna amplitude direction finder with narrow diagrams, a two-antenna direction finder with wide diagrams, and a two-antenna phase finder, it is possible to achieve both high accuracy and a wide range of unambiguous measurements; 2) a radar system based on a cheap and commonly available element base was developed; 3) antennas were developed that can be easily installed under the wings of UAVs; 4) experimental studies confirmed the performance of complex signal processing in an on-board six-antenna radio direction finder. The material of this work forms the basis for further experimental development of radio-direction finders for various purposes, opens up opportunities for overcoming the contradiction between accuracy and range of unambiguous measurements, and highlights an additional direction for increasing the autonomy of winged UAVs.

A Multioctave 8 GHz$-$40 GHz Receiver for Radio Astronomy

Accurate measurement of angular positions on the sky requires a well-defined system of reference, something that in practice is realized by the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) with observations of distant (typical redshift <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula> 1) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). At such great distances a subset of these objects exhibit as little as 10 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula> 50 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula> as/year observed parallax or proper motion, thus giving the frame excellent spatial and temporal stability. Until fairly recently the majority of AGN centered imaging was accomplished in the S (2.3 GHz) and X (8.4 GHz) radio frequency bands, however S-band observations for reasons such as sensitivity “plateauing”, increased source structure (jets), and radio frequency interference (RFI) have become less productive. Following spacecraft telemetry moves to higher frequencies and a desire to strengthen JPL's leadership in defining the next-generation of celestial reference frames has motivated the development of a “Quad-band” prototype receiver that operates in X, Ku, K, and Ka band in both right hand (RCP) and left hand (LCP) circular polarization. The goal of this receiver is to achieve less than a 20 % increase in noise over the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA, NRAO) performance specification, which in such a wide bandwidth represents a revolutionary capability. To evaluate the various technical developments of the 8 GHz <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula> 40 GHz receiver the feedhorn optical beam was designed to interface to the US based Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The receiver's intermediate frequency (IF) spans 4 GHz <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula> 8 GHz, giving rise to up to eight 4 GHz IF channels for a fully populated instrument. This paper outlines the technical development of a 2 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> / <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$_{2}$</tex-math></inline-formula> octave wide (8 GHz <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math></inline-formula> 40 GHz) X-Ka band prototype receiver, fulfilling a need for super broadband technology within the VLBI network. An important additional benefit of the wideband receiver approach is its simplicity and low cost of operation.

Experimental rotation control of the parametric pendulum using a velocity approach

This paper addresses the application of a simple control technique for reaching a stable rotational motion of the parametrically driven pendulum, starting from non-rotating responses. The control action consists of an assistance torque, which is provided conveniently to a pendulum wheel in order to increase its angular velocity. The magnitude of this torque is defined as inversely proportional to the magnitude of the angular velocity of the pendulum, which is computed in real time from angular position measurements. Maximum torque is applied when velocity is zero, while decreasing linearly as velocity increases. The assistance torque takes a very low value when the magnitude of the velocity reaches a threshold, which is defined in terms of the dynamics of the unforced pendulum. The direction of torque application depends on the sign of the angular velocity. The experiments show that rotations can be reached and maintained by means of this technique under a simple harmonic forcing and under an irregular forcing. Besides, since the control law is not dependent on the forcing period, it is intuited that it has the potential to produce good results under pseudo-stochastic forcing. This is of particular importance, with a view to a possible use in ocean wave energy converters, which is nowadays a promising engineering application of parametric pendulum systems. This is in line with the main motivation of this work, which is the implementation of this control technique to maintain the rotational motion of a pendulum-based wave energy converter.

Gamma Scientific Sets High Standards for Light Measurement

Gamma Scientific Sets High Standards for Light Measurement

Absolute angular position measurement by dual-comb spectroscopy of an autocollimation diffracted beam.

The dual-comb technique is a powerful tool in industrial inspection and scientific research and is capable of realizing ultrahigh-resolution and fast broadband spectral measurements. We propose an absolute angular-position measurement method based on dual-comb spectroscopy. With a simple layout, the absolute angular position can be naturally determined through the traceable and wide-amplitude spectra of the autocollimation diffracted beams of the target grating. We experimentally demonstrate that a precision of 0.12 arcsec in the dynamic range of approximately 6660 arcsec, along with a 1 kHz repetition rate difference, is achieved. Compared with a commercial autocollimator, over 1000 arcsec, the comparison residuals are kept within ±0.3 arcsec.

Algorithm of monopulse measurement of aircraft angular position using an artificial neural network

The possibilities of using artificial neural networks in processing radar data are considered. The possibility of using a neural network for measuring the angular position of an aircraft by monopulse method is proved. An algorithm based on the sharing use of standard monopulse angle measurement method and a neural network is proposed. The analysis of the efficiency of the proposed algorithm at different signal-to-noise ratios is accomplished.

Novel kinematic model of articulated arm coordinate measuring machine with angular position measurement errors of rotary axes

The measurement accuracy of an articulated arm coordinate measuring machine (AACMM) is determined by its kinematic model to estimate the end effector position from angular positions of rotary axes. In conventional studies, the Denavit–Hartenberg (DH) model, containing position and orientation errors of the rotary axis average lines as error sources, has been widely employed. This study first proposes a novel kinematic model including angular position measurement errors of rotary axes. To identify the proposed model, a new Single Point Articulation Test (SPAT) setup is presented with the R-Test to measure the stylus sphere's three-dimensional displacement. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model is experimentally evaluated.

Angular displacement sensor for gear position detection based on the tunneling magnetoresistance effect

In the fields of robotics, machine tools and spacecraft, measurement of the gear angular position lays the foundation for closed-loop positional feedback. In this article, an angular displacement sensor based on the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect is proposed for the precise measurement of angular displacement. The developed sensor mainly consists of a TMR element, a signal conditioning circuit, a permanent magnet and some necessary assembly components. The TMR element is composed of eight magnetic tunnel junctions, which are arranged according to the dual-full bridge structure with a spatial electric angle difference of π/2. Signals containing time information and space information are obtained after the sinusoidal and cosine voltages signals are respectively connected in two bridges. The signals are processed by a signal conditioning circuit, and then the angular displacement is measured by counting the clock pulses. The structure, working principles and signal conditioning method of the sensor are presented in detail. Moreover, a sensor prototype and a conditioning circuit are designed for actual experiments, according to the measured gear with a modulus of 1 and tooth number of 240. The prototype sensor has a theoretical resolution of 0.00001°. The experimental results show that the prototype sensor has a working stability of ±0.00023° within 1 h, and its measurement accuracy is −0.0008611° to 0.001361° in the measurement range from 0° to 360°. Therefore, the proposed sensor can be applied to the highly precise measurement of angular displacement.

Modelling and testing the measurement repeatability of linear and angular positions of a measuring arm (miniature NaviFAST 6D DEVICE)

This paper presents the use of a 6 DoF position measurement method with the NaviFast6D device, which is a short-range measuring arm for linear and angular position measurements. The device is used in the measurement of correct hip prosthesis fixation during hip surgery. The arm is equipped only with accelerometers, which is an innovative application that needs to be verified. The described experimental tests of determining the repeatability of the NaviFast6D demonstrated the correctness of the method. The analysis of the measurement repeatability limitations in the measurement and the dependence of the measurement repeatability on the arm base position, was described in detail. The need for about 400 repetitions of the measurement to obtain repeatability of measurement averaged in the range of 0,1 ÷ 0,2 mm was demonstrated. The applicability of the measuring arm in the case of approaching to the vertical of any axis of the arm joints was determined.

Miniature magneto-optic angular position sensor.

This Letter describes a miniature Fabry-Perot, contactless, magneto-optic sensor for angular position measurement. The sensor utilizes a magneto-optic fluid comprising barium hexaferrite nanoplatelets that become birefringent in the presence of an external magnetic field and a compact fiber-optic sensor system for tracking the liquid's optical axis direction. An efficient temperature compensation system is provided which allows the use of otherwise highly temperature-sensitive magneto-optic liquids. An unambiguous measurement range of 90° and a resolution of better than 0.05° are demonstrated experimentally.

Overview and Status of the International Celestial Reference Frame as Realized by VLBI

Accurate measurement of angular positions on the sky requires a well-defined system of reference that is realized with accessible objects. The purpose of this study is to review the international standard realization of such a system, the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF). The ICRF uses the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique as it has the highest resolution of any current astrometric technique for reference frames in order to observe Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) which are at such great distances (typical redshift ∼1) that there is currently no observed parallax or proper motion of these objects thus giving the frame excellent stability. We briefly review the history of the transition from the Fundamental Katalog 5 (FK5) optical frame to VLBI-based frames with attention to each of the three generations: ICRF-1, ICRF-2, and ICRF-3. We present some of the more prominent applications of the ICRF and outline the methods used to construct the ICRF. Next we discuss in more detail the current standard ICRF-3—which is the first frame to be realized at multiple wavelengths (S/X, K, X/Ka-bands)—including an estimate of its accuracy and limiting errors. We conclude with an overview of future plans for improving the ICRF.

An Indoor Positioning and Tracking Algorithm Based on Angle-of-Arrival Using a Dual-Channel Array Antenna

The angular position measurement of an array antenna based on a wireless signal has high accuracy in an indoor no-occlusion environment. However, due to the high complexity of indoor environments, signal occlusion, multipath, and other interfering factors are inevitable when users move randomly, which can greatly reduce the positioning accuracy. In addition, different directions of the positioning source signal can also affect the positioning result. The switching wheels of the dual-polarization antenna array are collected in channel 1, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to the data of channel 2 to estimate the frequency offset, and the phase of the data is compensated. Using the FFT frequency offset estimation, the high-precision positioning of a single base station is realized using the dual-channel switch and dual-polarization antenna array in turn. Aiming at analyzing the affecting factors of the positioning system accuracy, the strong tracking kalman filter algorithm is studied. At the same time, the singular value decomposition of the covariance matrix is performed to improve the robustness of the strong tracking kalman filter, and the adaptive factor is introduced to improve the filtering accuracy. The proposed positioning algorithm can achieve the positioning accuracy within 1 m in the coverage area in a line-of-sight (LOS) environment, while the dynamic positioning accuracy within 1 m cannot be guaranteed in the coverage area in a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment. On this basis, the analysis of the static, rotational, and dynamic positioning accuracies of the source in the LOS and NLOS environments shows that the proposed singular value decomposition strong tracking kalman filter (SVD-STKF) algorithm can improve the overall positioning accuracy of the system by 0.03 m, and the maximum error in the LOS environment can be reduced by 0.08 m. The proposed SVD-STKF algorithm can correct the Hausdorff distance of dynamic positioning by up to 0.513 m in the NLOS environment where the system’s positioning accuracy decreases sharply due to the signal shielding. Also, it can make the positioning results smoother and achieve a good correction effect for the points far away from the true trajectory.

Reconstruction of the Image Metric of Periodic Structures in an Opto-Digital Angle Measurement System.

Measurement of the object angular position and its change is one of the important tasks in measurement technique. Our method is based on determination of the angular position of a 2D periodical optical pattern (2D mark) at the object, captured by the sensor of a digital camera. System performance can be frustrated by errors in determination of the spot coordinates on the camera sensor; by the presence of lens aberrations; by deviations from the parallelism of the pattern planes and the camera sensor; and by differences between the actual spots positions and the ideal grid. In the paper we discuss the effect of these errors and the way to correct or eliminate them. We have developed the mathematical routine and the corresponding numerical codes for correction of the said errors. The code and the routine we checked in a real experiment. It has shown that the correction decreases the standard deviation in 15 times.

Estimation of robot states with poisson process based on EKF approximate of Kushner filter: a completely coordinate free Lie group approach

In this paper, a Lie coordinate-free torque based Euler–Lagrange equations of motion are developed for a 3-D link (3-DOF) robot. Intentional torque and jerky torque (non-intentional torque) are considered as the inputs to the dynamic profile of the robot. The jerky torque is modelled as a superposition of compound Poisson processes, which is a unique feature. The state vector of the robot, i.e., angular position and angular velocity vector, is thus a Markov process whose transition probability generator can be expressed in terms of the rate of the compound Poisson process that defines the jerky torque. Proof of frame invariance is provided to support the coordinate-free robot dynamics profile. Noise-free measurement is investigated as an ideal case. Angular position measurement is considered with white Gaussian noise. Further, an implementable finite-dimensional EKF approximate to Kushner–Kallianpur filter is obtained to estimate the robot state vector. Finally, the simulations are implemented on commercially available Omni bundle robot.

A Deep Learning Tool for Automated Radiographic Measurement of Acetabular Component Inclination and Version After Total Hip Arthroplasty

BackgroundInappropriate acetabular component angular position is believed to increase the risk of hip dislocation after total hip arthroplasty. However, manual measurement of these angles is time consuming and prone to interobserver variability. The purpose of this study was to develop a deep learning tool to automate the measurement of acetabular component angles on postoperative radiographs. MethodsTwo cohorts of 600 anteroposterior (AP) pelvis and 600 cross-table lateral hip postoperative radiographs were used to develop deep learning models to segment the acetabular component and the ischial tuberosities. Cohorts were manually annotated, augmented, and randomly split to train-validation-test data sets on an 8:1:1 basis. Two U-Net convolutional neural network models (one for AP and one for cross-table lateral radiographs) were trained for 50 epochs. Image processing was then deployed to measure the acetabular component angles on the predicted masks for anatomical landmarks. Performance of the tool was tested on 80 AP and 80 cross-table lateral radiographs. ResultsThe convolutional neural network models achieved a mean Dice similarity coefficient of 0.878 and 0.903 on AP and cross-table lateral test data sets, respectively. The mean difference between human-level and machine-level measurements was 1.35° (σ = 1.07°) and 1.39° (σ = 1.27°) for the inclination and anteversion angles, respectively. Differences of 5⁰ or more between human-level and machine-level measurements were observed in less than 2.5% of cases. ConclusionWe developed a highly accurate deep learning tool to automate the measurement of angular position of acetabular components for use in both clinical and research settings. Level of EvidenceIII.

Development of a Resolver-to-Digital Converter Based on Second-Order Difference Generalized Predictive Control

High-performance motor drives that operate in harsh conditions require an accurate and robust angular position measurement to correctly estimate the speed and reduce the torque ripple produced by angular estimation error. For that reason, a resolver is used in motor drives as a position sensor due to its robustness. A resolver-to-digital converter (RDC) is an observer used to get the angular position from the resolver signals. Most RDCs are based on angle tracking observers (ATOs). On the other hand, generalized predictive control (GPC) has become a powerful tool in developing controllers and observers for industrial applications. However, no GPC-based RDC with zero steady-state error during constant speed operation has been proposed. This paper proposes an RDC based on the second-order difference GPC (SOD-GPC). In SOD-GPC, the second-order difference operator is applied to design a GPC model with two embedded integrators. Thus, the SOD-GPC is used to design a type-II ATO whose steady-state angle estimation error tends to zero during constant speed operation. Simulation and experimental results prove that the proposed RDC system has better performance than other literature approaches.

Performance Investigation of a Simplified TMRBased Rotary Position Sensing System

Measurement of angular position of a rotating shaft is required in several industrial, medical, and aerospace applications. In this article, a simplified position measurement system using Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR) sensing technique is proposed to cater this objective. The TMR-based rotary position-sensing system (TRPS) uses inherent merits of the TMR technology for shaft angle measurement. It processes the sensor signals, possessing sine-cosine behavior, and renders a linearly varying output. The TRPS is primarily designed and tested for angle measurement over full-circle range. However, a modified design, with lower component count, is also proposed and verified for half-circle range measurements. The circuit architecture of the TRPS and its operation are discussed in detail. Owing to its faster response, the TRPS can be used to track the angular position of the shaft, even at high speeds. The effects of non-idealities of sensor and circuit, on the TRPS output, are analyzed. Several simulation- and emulation-based tests are conducted to validate the suitability of the TRPS for static and dynamic inputs. The TRPS is found to be useful for angle measurement up to shaft speeds of 12000 rpm. A TRPS hardware is fabricated using AAT003-10E TMR integrated circuit (IC) as the sensor and tested. Experiments show that the TRPS output varies linearly for 360° range. Finally, a performance comparison study is carried out to highlight the achievements of the TRPS over the existing schemes.

On-Line Open-Phase Fault Detection Method for Switched Reluctance Motors with Bus Current Measurement

This article introduces an on-line fault diagnosis (FD) system to detect and recognize open-phase faults in switched reluctance motors (SRMs). Both tasks, detection and recognition, are based on functions built with the same information but from different sources. Specifically, these functions are constructed from bus current measurement provided by a sensor and from the estimate of such a current provided by an extended Kalman filter (EKF) that performs the estimation from only rotor angular position measurements. In short, the FD system only requires two measurements for employment: bus current and angular position. In order to show its efficacy, results from numerical simulations (performed in a virtual test bench) are presented. Specifically, these simulations involve the dynamics of the SRM, including the magnetic phenomena caused by the analyzed faults. The motor dynamics were obtained with finite element simulations, which guarantee results close to the actual ones.

Constraint analysis of measurement accuracy in high-precision X-ray pulsar positioning

In this paper, the relationship between direct measurement of X-ray pulsar angular position and second-order correlation is analyzed by classical statistical optics. On this basis, a scheme for measuring pulsar angle position is put forward on account of X-ray band intensity correlation, which is expected to achieve a positioning accuracy of 10 Mas. Finally, the connection between positioning accuracy and complex correlation in the intensity correlation measurement is studied. Also, main factors that affected the measurement are analyzed.

Performance and Wake Characterization of a Model Hydrokinetic Turbine: The Reference Model 1 (RM1) Dual Rotor Tidal Energy Converter

The mechanical power and wake flow field of a 1:40 scale model of the US Department of Energy’s Reference Model 1 (RM1) dual rotor tidal energy converter are characterized in an open-channel flume to evaluate power performance and wake flow recovery. The NACA-63(4)-24 hydrofoil profile in the original RM1 design is replaced with a NACA-4415 profile to minimize the Reynolds dependency of lift and drag characteristics at the test chord Reynolds number. Precise blade angular position and torque measurements were synchronized with three acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADV) aligned with each rotor centerline and the midpoint between the rotor axes. Flow conditions for each case were controlled to maintain a hub height velocity, uhub= 1.04 ms−1, a flow Reynolds number, ReD= 4.4 × 105, and a blade chord length Reynolds number, Rec= 3.1 × 105. Performance was measured for a range of tip-speed ratios by varying rotor angular velocity. Peak power coefficients, CP= 0.48 (right rotor) and CP= 0.43 (left rotor), were observed at a tip speed ratio, λ= 5.1. Vertical velocity profiles collected in the wake of each rotor between 1 and 10 rotor diameters are used to estimate the turbulent flow recovery in the wake, as well as the interaction of the counter-rotating rotor wakes. The observed performance characteristics of the dual rotor configuration in the present study are found to be similar to those for single rotor investigations in other studies. Similarities between dual and single rotor far-wake characteristics are also observed.