Surveying system

• US 10,345,453 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2017
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jeff Counterman, Jesse Gil, Ronald D. Shaw
• Original Assignee: Jeff Counterman, Jesse Gil, Ronald D. Shaw
• Inventors: Gil, Jesse, Shaw, Ronald D., Counterman, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US15/700,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20180024251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/00 Surveying instruments or accessories not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/00 Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using active systems G01S13/00, G01S15/00, G01S17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0063 of measured values, i.e. measurement on base station and position calculation on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00

Abstract

A surveying system for a construction site has a restricted antenna system with a plurality of fixed location antennas each defined by a set of location data associated with a specific deployment position. The surveying system also has a computing device with a data processor and a display screen. A communications module establishes a data transfer link with the restricted antenna system over which spatial data for distances between current positions of the computing device and one or more of the plurality of fixed location antennas are received. The computing device is loadable with project drawings corresponding to the construction site and displayable on the display screen. A position marker is overlaid on the display of the project drawing at a position thereon corresponding to a computing device location value derived from the spatial data and the location data of one or more of the fixed location antennas.

Claims

1. A surveying system for a construction site, comprising:

a restricted antenna system including a plurality of fixed location antennas each located at a known position at the construction site; and

a computing device including a display screen, a Global Positioning System GPS receiver, and a communications module establishing a data transfer link with the restricted antenna system;

wherein the computing device displays one or more project drawings corresponding to the construction site on the display screen, a position marker being overlaid on the display screen of the project drawing at a position thereon corresponding to a computing device location value, the computing device location value selectively derived from a distance between a current location of the computing device and the one or more of the fixed location antennas, or from location data provided by the GPS receiver indicating the current location of the computing device.

2. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the display of the project drawing, is adjustable in response to a change in position of the computing device.

3. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the restricted antenna system comprises three fixed location antennas.

4. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a handheld device.

5. The surveying system of claim 4, wherein the computing device is a cellular phone.

6. The surveying system of claim 4, wherein the computing device is a tablet.

7. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the communication between the computing device and the restricted antenna system is by a radio frequency signal.

8. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the set of location data of a given one of the fixed location antennas is derived from an on-board GPS receiver thereof.

9. The surveying system of claim 1, further comprising a portable antenna module in communication with the computing device.

10. The surveying system of claim 9, wherein the portable antenna module includes an antenna receptive to signals from at least one of the plurality of fixed location antennas, and a measuring device that derives the spatial data based upon distances to one or more of the fixed location antennas, the spatial data being transmitted to the computing device.

11. The surveying system of claim 9, wherein the portable antenna module is integrated into an external case of the computing device.

12. The surveying system of claim 1, wherein the project drawing is in a universal format.

13. The surveying system of claim 12, wherein the universal format is Portable Document Format (PDF).

14. A method of navigating a construction site with a computing device, the method comprising:

displaying on the computing device, one or more project drawings from a central database, the project drawings including at least one element defined by a set of position coordinates corresponding to a position within the construction site;

selectively receiving, from a restricted antenna system receiver in communication with a restricted antenna system including a plurality of known location antennas located within the construction site, and an on-board GPS receiver on the computing device, a set of coordinates corresponding to a current position of the computing device within the construction site; and

overlaying a device position marker on the display of the one or more project drawings based upon the set of coordinates from the location reporting system.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising adjusting the overlay of the device position marker in response to a change in the current position of the computing, device within the construction site.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the restricted

antenna system derives a distance value representative of a distance between at least one of the fixed position antennas and the current position of the computing device within the construction site.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving the distance value on the restricted antenna system receiver; and

converting the distance value to the set of coordinates corresponding to the current position of the computing device.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

converting longitude/latitude data of the set of coordinates corresponding to the current position of the computing device within the construction site to Cartesian coordinates indexed to the one or more project drawings.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the set of coordinates corresponding to the current position of the computing device within the construction site includes:

deriving multiple sets of coordinates over a predefined time period; and

generating an average of the multiple sets of coordinates, the average of the multiple sets of coordinates being assigned the set of coordinates corresponding to the current position of the computing device within the construction site.