AUTOMATED ASSET POSITIONING FOR LOCATION AND INVENTORY TRACKING USING MULTIPLE POSITIONING TECHNIQUES
First Claim
1. An improved position tracking system comprising:
- position sensor systems, each sensor system including one or more sensors that provide signals indicating a location of a mobile object that are used to determine position data for the mobile object;
a decision making module for receiving the position data output from each of the position sensor systems, and for performing an analysis to enable combining the position data outputs to provide position solution data with a higher degree of accuracy than the position data provided from a single one of the position sensor systems; and
a fusion module for combining the data according to the analysis of the decision making module.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is provided for tracking and maintaining a highly accurate inventory of shipping containers that are stored within container storage facilities. The invention includes using multiple complementary real-time and post-processing positioning techniques associated with various positioning sensors that are associated with inventory pieces or equipment. Examples of such positioning techniques are DGPS, GPS with RTK, DGPS loosely-coupled with INS, DGPS tightly-coupled with INS, and DGPS deeply-coupled with INS. Data correction and fusion techniques are applied to these positioning stages to re-compute a calibrated position with an improved accuracy. An additional trajectory can be iteratively determined using the fusing technique until the position data becomes statistically trustworthy. Further, combinations of multiple real-time positioning techniques combined with past position error correction algorithms provide a high accuracy needed for inventory tracking.
126 Citations
25 Claims
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1. An improved position tracking system comprising:
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position sensor systems, each sensor system including one or more sensors that provide signals indicating a location of a mobile object that are used to determine position data for the mobile object; a decision making module for receiving the position data output from each of the position sensor systems, and for performing an analysis to enable combining the position data outputs to provide position solution data with a higher degree of accuracy than the position data provided from a single one of the position sensor systems; and a fusion module for combining the data according to the analysis of the decision making module. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A position tracking system comprising:
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positioning sensors associated with a first mobile object, each positioning sensor for providing first position data for the mobile object; combining modules, each combining module receiving the first position data from at least some of the position sensors and providing a combined data output; a correlation module for receiving the combined data output from each of the combining modules, and for performing an analysis to enable combining the combined data outputs to provide position solution data with a higher degree of accuracy than a single one of the combined data outputs; and a fusion module for combining the data according to the analysis of the correlation module. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A method for providing position data for a mobile object comprising:
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obtaining position data indicative of a position of the mobile object; correlating the position data from each of the sensing systems to analyze data segments and provide an indication of the accuracy of each of the data segments relative to the others; and fusing the data according to the indication provided by the correlation step. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification