Absolute Position Coding Method for Angular Sensor—Single-Track Gray Codes

Single-track Gray codes (STGCs) is a type of absolute position coding method for novel angular sensors, because it has single-track property over traditional Gray codes and mono-difference over linear feedback shift register codes. However, given that the coding theory of STGCs is incomplete, STGC construction is still a challenging task even though it has been defined for more than 20 years. Published coding theories and results on STGCs are about two types of STGC, namely, necklace and self-dual necklace ordering, which are collectively called as k-spaced head STGCs. To find a new code, three constraints on generating sequences are proposed to accelerate the searching algorithm, and the complete searching result of length-6 STGCs is initially obtained. Among the entire 132 length-6 STGCs, two novel types of STGCs with non-k-spaced heads are found, and the basic structures of these codes with the general length n are proposed and defined as twin-necklace and triplet-necklace ordering STGCs. Furthermore, d-plet-necklace ordering STGC, which unifies all the known STGCs by changing the value of d, is also defined. Finally, a single-track absolute encoder prototype is designed to prove that STGCs are as convenient as the traditional position coding methods.