RadioBanter - View Single Post - Directional antena and beacon for robot guidance

Richard Clark · September 23rd 06, 09:12 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna

On Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:07:50 GMT, wrote:

VOR is very different.

Hi Alison,

Yes, I already admitted the term was probably pulled from an alphabet
soup of navigational equipment I've calibrated: TACAN, VOR, DME, ADF,
LORAN (although more commonly marine application) and on and on. The
mechanical phasing systems were a workable kludge. But what kludges
nonetheless. I've even navigated by the time differential between the
Naval Observatory encoded signal in LORAN stations and my atomic clock
aboard a sub tender (our LORAN was broke).

you decirbe the AN corridor scheme.

Which is eminently suited to the problem.

AN has 180degree ambiguity

Which is not an issue for the stated problem.

A light path can be resolved with hardware logic instead of software.
Faster performance.

Optical interferometry.

Hardly. This is gilding the Lily and painting the Rose. The optical
analog of the AN system is sufficient to the problem. Simpler beacon
methods would prevail even here.

The difficult issue is one of a closed feedback loop and maintaining
stability, not deciding if one is on or off the path. That is dirt
simple. What you DO with the information is the logical nightmare,
because errors compound quickly and information descends into
statistical nonsense in its out of phase application.

In a recent robotic car rally, the big name universities and
corporations with million dollar budgets, gizmos galore (multiple GPS,
radar, and what have you) and plenty of engineering talent were
literally blown off the road by an insurance broker who hobby funded a
garage crew outfit.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC