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Dead reckoning (DR) is the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known speed, elapsed time, and course. While traditional methods of dead reckoning are no longer considered primary in most applications, modern inertial navigation systems, which also depend upon dead reckoning, are very widely used.
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Animal navigation
In studies of animal navigation, dead reckoning is more commonly (though not exclusively) known as path integration, and animals use it to estimate their current location based on the movements they made since their last known location. Studies on the homing pigeon have shown the birds use this ability in returning to find their nest.citation needed Animals such as ants, rodents, and geese have also been shown to continuously keep track of their locations relative to a starting point and return to it, an important skill to have for creatures that forage for food and then return to a fixed home.1
Marine navigation
In marine navigation a dead reckoning plot generally does not take into account the effect of currents or wind. Aboard ship a dead reckoning plot is considered important in evaluating position information and planning the movement of the vessel.2
Dead reckoning begins with a known position, or fix, which is then advanced, mathematically or directly on the chart, by means of recorded heading, speed, and time. Speed can be determined by many methods. Before modern instrumentation, it was determined aboard ship using a chip log. More modern methods include pit log referencing engine speed (e.g. in rpm) against a table of total displacement (for ships) or referencing one's indicated airspeed fed by the pressure from a Pitot tube. This measurement is converted to an equivalent airspeed based upon known atmospheric conditions and measured errors in the indicated airspeed system. A naval vessel uses a device called a pit sword (rodmeter), which uses two sensors on a metal rod to measure the electromagnetic variance caused by the ship moving through water. This change is then converted to ship's speed. Distance is determined by multiplying the speed and the time. This initial position can then be adjusted resulting in an estimated position by taking into account the current (known as set and drift in marine navigation). If there is no positional information available, a new dead reckoning plot may start from an estimated position. In this case subsequent dead reckoning positions will have taken into account estimated set and drift.
Dead reckoning positions are calculated at predetermined intervals, and are maintained between fixes. The duration of the interval varies. Factors including one's speed made good and the nature of heading and other course changes, and the navigator's judgment determine when dead reckoning positions are calculated.
Before the development of the marine chronometer, dead reckoning was the primary method of determining longitude available to mariners such as Christopher Columbus and John Cabot on their trans-Atlantic voyages.
Air navigation
Traditionally, in air navigation, displacement or position caused by wind were taken into account, using a tool called a wind triangle. Generally speaking, dead reckoning positions were calculated at least once every 300 miles and when making combined turns totaling more than 30 degrees from the initial heading out of the last DR position.
Today, dead reckoning is rarely used in this traditional form for air navigation, but it survives in the form of inertial navigation systems, which are nearly universal on more advanced aircraft. The INS is used in combination with other navigation aids, such as GPS, in order to provide reliable navigation capability under virtually any conditions, with or without external navigation references.
Etymology
There is disagreement about the derivation of the phrase. It is popularly thought to come from deduced reckoning and is sometimes given in modern sources as an alternatively spelled ded reckoning; however, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase dead reckoning dates from Elizabethan times (1605–1615).
The popular etymology from deduced is not documented in the Oxford English Dictionary or any other historical dictionary. Dead reckoning is navigation without stellar observation. With stellar observation, you are "live," working with the stars and the movement of the planet. With logs, compasses, clocks, but no sky, you are working "dead."
In an extended discussion on "dead vs "ded", the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board summarises it thus ...
The term dates from the seventeenth century, so we have to look to the sea for the origin of the term, not the air. One theory is that dead reckoning was first called "deduced reckoning," which someone then abbreviated (in a ship's log) as "ded. reckoning." Later someone reading it thought "ded" didn't make much sense, so he wrongly (according to this theory) thought it must be a misspelling for "dead." The other theory is that it was "dead reckoning" from the beginning, but since this sort of navigation doesn't seem to have much to do with death, someone assumed the derivation from "deduced," which must have made more sense to him. In either case, folk etymology is at work, but it isn't immediately obvious which is the real etymology and which is the folk etymology.
There is an extended bibliography and encyclopedic references accompanying the above article.
Computer games and simulations
Dead reckoning is also a method used in networked computer games and simulations to reduce the perception of lag caused by network latency and bandwidth issues. Programs do this by predicting the future state of an entity based on its current state (such as predicting the path of a fighter jet based on its velocity and position). Then the program only sends updated information about the entity's current state if it is not close enough to the predicted state. Other programs in the network use the same prediction algorithm to fill in the gaps between entity updates.
See also
References
- ^ Gallistel. The Organization of Learning. 1990.
- ^ http://www.irbs.com/bowditch/pdf/chapt07.pdf
External links
- US Coast Guard Auxiliary: "Dead reckoning"
- Bowditch Online: "Dead reckoning"
- Straight Dope: Is "dead reckoning" short for "deduced reckoning"?
- Jesse Aronson: "Dead Reckoning: Latency Hiding for Networked Games"
- Paper about Helmet-Mounted Pedestrian Dead-Reckoning System (2006)
- WFR, a Dead Reckoning Robot
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 October 2008, at 23:33.
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