A system for determining an absolute position of a device includes a high resolution track (14), a sensor and processing unit (22) associated with the high resolution track (14), a reference track (18) having a plurality of pole pairs arranged to define a single-track Gray code segment, and an array of Hall effect sensors (26) associated with the reference track to output a reference signal to the sensor and processing unit indicative of the coarse absolute position of the device over the single-track Gray code segment. The sensor and processing unit (22) combines the reference signal with the position of the device over the high resolution track to determine an initial, fine absolute position of the device. An up/down hardware counter (34) increments the initial fine absolute position using a signal generated from the high resolution track, and without any further software-based processing, to maintain and continuously update the fine absolute position of the device.

An encoder includes a scale, a detector, and a processor. The processor executes a second process while executing a first process, calculates a first relative position of one of the scale and the detector to the other of the scale and the detector when a calculation of a relative position between them starts, and then calculates a second relative position of the one to the other based on a relative displacement amount between them and the first relative position.

A position detection encoder includes a scale that has a position detection pattern and a linear pattern that is formed in a direction parallel to a length direction of the position detection pattern; and a position detector generating a position detection signal with a different value due to a displacement of the position detection pattern in the length direction. In the position detector, a position confirmation pattern is formed that includes two markers arranged at an interval equal to or less than an offset tolerance value for a positional relationship of the position detector and the scale in a width direction of the position detection pattern.

A device for measuring an absolute angle includes first and second rotatable members having first and second radii and capable of rotating over first and second angles respectively, a first number of detectable elements mounted on the first rotatable member, a second number of detectable elements mounted on the second rotatable member, and at least one sensor for detecting rotation of the detectable elements. The second rotatable member is coupled with the first rotatable member such that the second angle is equal to the first angle times the ratio of the first radius and the second radius. The first radius is equal to a first integer times a factor, while the second radius is equal to a second integer times the factor. The product of the first number and the second integer, and the product of the second number and the first integer, are co-prime.

The invention relates to a sensor device and method for detecting measurement data relating to the absolute position of a linearly or rotationally moveable body, comprising an optical sensor system, wherein the optical sensor system uses exclusively zero-order rejections for the position measuring, and a magnetic sensor system which emits a second sensor output signal depending on the position to be determined of the moveable body, wherein the gauge of the optical sensor system and the gauge of the magnetic sensor system are integrated in a common gauge body, and a computer unit which is provided to obtain the first sensor output signal and the second sensor output signal and to generate a common sensor output signal from the first sensor output signal and the second sensor output signal, wherein the current period of the second sensor system can be deduced from the first sensor output signal at every time, in order to calculate clear absolute position information based on the first and second sensor output signal.

The linear conveyor device includes a position detecting device including a scale attached to a slider, and a sensor structural body including a sensor and a driver. The driver is provided with a first and a second signal processing units, and a signal comparison processing unit. The first signal processing unit performs predetermined first interpolation processing on an output signal from a first sensor, generates and outputs first positional data. The second signal processing unit performs predetermined second interpolation processing on an output signal from a second sensor, generates second positional data, and outputs the second positional data. The signal comparison processing unit recognizes the first positional data as positional information of the slider, generates identification information unique to the slider, and outputs the identification information, where the identification information corresponds to a difference between the first positional data and the second positional data.

A system is provided with a magnetic field sensor being positioned in a magnetic field of a magnet that is coupled to a rotatable driving shaft. The magnetic field sensor is configured to sense a rotation of the magnetic field in response to a rotation of the rotatable driving shaft, and generate an angle sensor signal based on an orientation angle of the magnetic field. The angle sensor signal includes angular values that represent an absolute orientation angle of the rotatable driving shaft. The system includes a memory storing a mapping of values of a patterned signal to the angular values, electronic circuitry configured to generate, based on the angular values and the stored mapping, the patterned signal, and a signal generator circuit configured to generate a signal representing the absolute orientation angle of the rotatable driving shaft based on the angle sensor signal.

The present disclosure relates to a magnetic angle sensor arrangement. The magnetic angle sensor arrangement comprises a multipole magnet rotatable around a rotation axis. A geometric arrangement of the multipole magnet is rotationally asymmetric with respect to the rotation axis. A plurality of magnetic field sensor circuits are placed around the rotation axis at predefined equidistant angular positions in a predefined axial distance from the multipole magnet, wherein each magnetic field sensor circuit comprises a first magnetic field sensor element sensitive to first magnetic field component and a second magnetic field sensor element sensitive to a second magnetic field component perpendicular to the first magnetic field component. Processing circuitry is configured to compute a first intermediate angular information based on a combination of signals from the plurality of first magnetic field sensor elements, to compute a second intermediate angular information based on a combination of signals from the plurality of second magnetic field sensor elements, and to compute an estimate of a rotation angle of the fixture and/or the multipole magnet based on the first and second intermediate angular information.

In a length or position measuring system which has an at least locally substantially linear measuring gauge and at least one sensor able to be moved relative to the measuring gauge wherein the measuring gauge includes an incremental track and at least one absolute track and wherein the incremental track and the at least one absolute track have pole pairs arranged in the longitudinal direction of the measuring gauge, it is provided in particular that at least one pole pair of the absolute track is phase-shifted relative to a corresponding pole pair of the incremental track.

A self-calibration method for positioning of a light fixture includes steps of: S1. setting a plurality of preset positioning reference points around the circumference of the absolute encoder; driving the light fixture to rotate by the driving device and acquiring a corresponding first output value of the absolute encoder at each preset positioning reference point; S2. driving the light fixture to rotate by the driving device and acquiring a second output value of the absolute encoder, and when the second output value is equal to the corresponding first output value at a certain preset positioning reference point, taking the preset positioning reference point as a calibrated positioning reference point; and S3. positioning the light fixture according to the calibrated positioning reference point.