公开(公告)号：US10162044B2

公开(公告)日：2018-12-25

申请号：US15019772

申请日：2016-02-09

Applicant: X Development LLC

Inventor： Richard Wayne DeVaul ,  Waleed Kadous ,  Eric Teller ,  Cliff Biffle ,  Edward Allen Keyes

IPC: G01S5/04 ,  G01S1/02 ,  G01S1/04 ,  G01S1/20 ,  G01S5/02 ,  G01S19/03 ,  G01S19/24 ,  G01S5/00 ,  G01S5/12 ,  G01S5/14 ,  G01S5/16

Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments of a balloon-based positioning system and method. In one example embodiment, a system includes at least three balloons, with each balloon including a position-determining module (PDM) and a position-broadcasting module (PBM). Each PDM is configured for determining a position of the respective balloon and each PBM is configured for broadcasting a balloon signal containing balloon-positioning data of the respective balloon. The balloon-positioning data includes the determined position of the respective balloon and a corresponding time of broadcast.