System for determining the angular spin position of an object spinning about an axis

Claim 3

A system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the receiving antenna means is provided with a loop antenna and a dipole antenna which are not perpendicularly disposed.

Claim 4

A system as claimed in claim 1, in which the second object consists of a projectile, characterised in that first and second antennas are connected to the projectile on the side turned away from the direction of flight.

Claim 5

A system as claimed in claim 1, in which the second object is provided with a missile having fins, characterised in that the fins of the missile serve as first and second antenna means.

Claim 6

A system as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that the missile is provided with four fins where adjacent fins are positioned at 90° angles.

Claim 7

A system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the second carrier wave has a modulation comprising a predetermined phase relation with the phase of the frequency of the first carrier wave.

Claim 8

A system as claimed in claim 6, characterised in that the modulation concerns an amplitude modulation.

Claim 9

A system as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that the phase of the amplitude modulation equals the phase of the frequency of the first carrier wave.

Claim 11

A system as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that the frequency of the first carrier wave is lower than the frequency of the second carrier wave.

Claim 12

A system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the second carrier wave is also suitable for sending information.

Claim 13

A system as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the receiving antenna means is at least provided with a first and a second directional antenna having a different orientation with respect to each other.

Claim 14

A system as claimed in claim 12, characterised in that both antennas are perpendicularly disposed.

Claim 19

A system as claimed in claim 12, characterised in that the receiving means comprises: a. a reference unit for obtaining a reference signal from the second carrier wave received by the receiving antenna means, the phase of said reference signal having a predetermined relation with the phase of the carrier wave frequency of said first carrier wave; b. a first and a second mixer for mixing with said reference signal the first carrier wave received by means of the first or the second directional antenna; c. a first and a second filter unit for filtering the output signals of said first and second mixers, said filters passing only frequency components equal or substantially equal to zero; and d. a trigonometric unit controlled by the output signals of the first and second filters, which trigonometric unit generates a signal representing the instantaneous angle between one of the antennas and the polarisation direction of the carrier wave.

Claim 21

A system as claimed in claim 18, characterised in that the reference unit is provided with a demodulator for obtaining a reference signal from the second carrier wave received by means of a third antenna.

Claim 22

A system as claimed in claim 18, characterised in that the second carrier wave includes data information and the reference unit is provided with a filter for filtering out the data information.

Claim 23

A system as claimed in claim 18, characterised in that the trigonometric unit consists of a table-look-up generator generating φ from two input signals A cos φ and A sin φ.

Claim 24

A system as claimed in claim 18, characterised in that the trigonometric unit consists of a computer calculating φ from two input signals A cos φ and A sin φ.

Claim 25

A system as claimed in claim 1, where the first object is provided with a transmitter and antenna unit having such a range that the at least one carrier wave reaches up to and around the second object as well as down to the earth surface.

Claim 26

A system as claimed in claim 24, where the at least one carrier wave has an electric field component having an orientation which is independent of the orientation of the transmitter and antenna unit.

Claim 30

A system as claimed in claim 28, where the vehicle is a ship.

Claim 31

A projectile including means for determining an angular spin position of the projectile relative to a first object from electromagnetic carrier waves received from the first object, said carrier waves comprising a first polarized carrier wave and a second carrier wave including phase information of the first carrier wave, said projectile including directional receiving antenna means for receiving the carrier waves and receiving means coupled to the antenna means for processing said carrier waves to obtain said angular spin position.

Claim 32

A projectile including means for determining an angular spin position of the projectile relative to a first object from electromagnetic carrier waves received from the first object, said carrier waves comprising a first polarized carrier wave and a second carrier wave including phase information of the first carrier wave, said projectile including directional receiving antenna means for receiving the carrier waves and receiving means coupled to the antenna means for processing said carrier waves to obtain said angular spin position.

Claim 33

A projectile as in claim 30 where the antenna means comprises first and second antennas for receiving the first carrier wave and a third antenna for receiving the second carrier wave.

Claim 34

A projectile as in claim 36 where the receiving means comprises: a. a reference unit for obtaining a reference signal from the second carrier wave received by the receiving antenna means, the phase of said reference signal having a predetermined relation with the phase of the carrier wave frequency of said first carrier wave; b. a first and a second mixer for mixing with said reference signal the first carrier wave received by means of the first or the second directional antenna; c. a first and a second filter unit for filtering the output signals of said first and second mixers, said filters passing only frequency components equal or substantially equal to zero; and d. a trigonometric unit controlled by the output signals of the first and second filters, which trigonometric unit generates a signal representing the instantaneous angle between one of the antennas and the polarisation direction of the carrier wave.

Claim 35

A projectile as in claim 32 where the reference unit comprises a phase-shifter for shifting the components of the first and second carrier wave, received by the receiving antennas means, 90° with respect to each other, a summing unit for summing the components shifted in phase with respect to each other, and a demodulator for demodulating the summing signal of the summing unit where the demodulated signal is suitable to serve as reference signal.

Claim 36

A projectile as in claim 32 where the reference unit includes a demodulator for obtaining a reference signal from the second carrier wave.

Claim 37

A projectile as in claim 32 where the second carrier wave includes data information and the reference unit includes a filter for filtering out said data information.

Claim 38

A projectile as in claim 30 where the antenna means comprises first and second directional antennas having different orientations with respect to each other.

Claim 39

A projectile as in claim 36 where the first and second directional antennas are perpendicularly disposed with respect to each other.

Claim 40

A projectile as in claim 36 or 38 where first and second directional antennas comprise loop antennas.

Claim 41

A projectile as in claim 36 or 38 where first and second directional antennas comprise dipole antennas.