Alignment Determination for Antennas and Such

摘要

An exemplary alignment module for a base station antenna has one or more accelerometers and one or more magnetometers. The one or more accelerometers are used to determine tilt and roll angles of the antenna, while the yaw angle of the antenna is determined using the one or more magnetometers and the determined tilt and roll angles. Using multiple accelerometers and/or multiple magnetometers can improve accuracy of angle determination. A service provider can determine when to re-align the antenna by monitoring the tilt, roll, and yaw angles remotely to detect changes in antenna orientation. Yaw angle determination can also take into account offset values corresponding to soft-iron effects, hard-iron effects, and factory calibration. The need to re-calibrate offset values following changes in local magnetic environment can be detected by comparing different sensor signals, such as the different magnetic fields detected by a plurality of magnetometers.

主权项

1. A system for determining orientation of an apparatus, the system comprising:
one or more accelerometers rigidly mounted to the apparatus; one or more magnetometers rigidly mounted to the apparatus; and a controller configured to (i) receive signals from the one or more accelerometers and the one or more magnetometers and (ii) determine tilt, roll, and yaw angles of the apparatus, wherein the controller is configured to:
(1) determine the tilt and roll angles of the apparatus based on the signals from the one or more accelerometers; and(2) determine the yaw angle of the apparatus based on (a) the determined tilt and roll angles and (b) the signals from the one or more magnetometers.