METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC CALIBRATION OF MAGNETIC COMPASS

摘要

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC CALIBRATION OF MAGNETIC COMPASS A three winding induction compass mounted in a host vehicle has each winding output coupled to an analog to digital converter. Each winding output is weighted and accumulated by a push down stack circuit to obtain a time filtered output; the filtered outputs are mapped into equivalent two winding outputs as the vehicle is turned in a 360.degree. circle to form sensitivity values from the windings readings and using these values to obtain measurement parameters which are incorporated into a least squares matrix which is solved for calibration coefficients to obtain the calibration parameters representing the distortions due to the permanent and induced magnetism of the host vehicle and due to winding imbalance between the three windings and misorientation or the three windings. The calibration parameters are applied to the outputs of the three windings to obtain an equivalent two winding output which is normalized for determining the corrected compass heading.