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Low frequency radio signal polarisation sensor with applications in attitude estimation


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Authors

Maguire, Sean 
Robertson, Paul 

Abstract

A novel system for estimating the attitude (orientation) of a platform using measurements of Low Frequency (LF) radio signals is reported. The sensor system consists of an array of three orthogonal solenoid coil antennas, a three channel radio receiver circuit, a datalogging and control module and data processing algorithms. Traditional low-cost attitude estimation systems typically combine accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes, but produce estimates that are sensitive to platform acceleration. This is a particular problem in high-acceleration, cost-constrained environments such as small fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The system presented here is shown to accurately measure the axis of polarisation for signals with linear or almost linear polarisation, subject to a sign ambiguity. A representative AM radio broadcast in the LF band is shown to have a substantially linear polarisation, which is used to provide information about the sensor’s attitude and shown to exhibit no drift over a period of 24 hours.

Description

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICSENS.2014.6985321

Keywords

4605 Data Management and Data Science, 46 Information and Computing Sciences, 40 Engineering, 4001 Aerospace Engineering

Journal Title

IEEE SENSORS 2014 Proceedings

Conference Name

2014 IEEE Sensors

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

IEEE