COMBINATION LASER SYSTEM AND GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM

• US 20080158044A1
• Filed: 03/19/2008
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gary L. Cain, James M. Janky, Mark E. Nichols, Nicholas C. Talbot
• Original Assignee: Gary L. Cain, James M. Janky, Mark E. Nichols, Nicholas C. Talbot
• Inventors: Janky, James M., Nichols, Mark E., Talbot, Nicholas C., Cain, Gary L.
• Application Number:
  US12/051,508
• Publication Number:
  US 20080158044A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/54
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 3/842 using electromagnetic, optical or photoelectric beams, e.g. laser beams
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2045 Guiding machines along a predetermined path for graders E02F3/841; machines for construction of roads E01C19/004
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 15/004 Reference lines, planes or sectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/10 providing dedicated supplementary positioning signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/45 by combining measurements of signals from the satellite radio beacon positioning system with a supplementary measurement

Abstract

A combination laser system and global navigation satellite system has a laser detector positioned in a known and fixed relationship with the nominal phase center of an included global navigation satellite antenna. The outputs of the laser system and the global navigation satellite system are used together to determine position.

Claims

1. A system for determining position in three dimensions, comprising:

a laser transmitter that projects at least one laser beam that rotates about a generally vertical axis,

a GNSS receiver for determining position, the GNSS receiver having a GNSS antenna,

an optical sensor for receiving the laser beam, said optical sensor being coaxial with, and at, or displaced a small distance from, the phase center of said GNSS antenna, and

a device receiving signals from the GNSS receiver and signals from the optical sensor to determine an estimate of the position of the sensor and the receiver in three dimensions there from, said device utilizing signals received from the GNSS receiver to determine the estimate of position in all three dimensions and said device utilizing signals received from the optical sensor to improve the estimate of position in all three dimensions.

2. The system of claim 1 in which said laser transmitter projects a pair of fan shaped beams of laser light, and in which the optical sensor is responsive to both of said beams.

3. The system of claim 1 in which said GNSS antenna and said optical sensor are located on the same mast in close proximity.

4. The system of claim 1 in which a least squares approximation is utilized to determine the most likely position in three dimensions, based on the signals from both the optical sensor and the GNSS receiver.

5. A system for determining the position of a machine in three dimensions and controlling the machine in three dimensions, comprising:

a laser transmitter, positioned at a reference position, projecting two or more fan-shaped laser beams and rotating the laser beams about a generally vertical axis, the two or more fan-shaped laser beams diverging in non-parallel, non-horizontal planes, with the line of intersection of these non-parallel, non-horizontal planes being non-vertical,

a GNSS receiver on the machine for determining the position of the machine in three dimensions, the GNSS receiver having a GNSS antenna mounted on the machine,

an optical sensor mounted on a machine for receiving the fan-shaped laser beams, and

a device on the machine, receiving output data from the GNSS receiver and output data from the optical sensor, to determine an estimate of the position of the machine in three dimensions from a combination of all of said data and for providing a control signal, said estimate of the position of the machine in each of the three dimensions being a function of the data from the GNSS receiver and a function of the data from the optical sensor.

6. The system of claim 5 in which said laser transmitter further transmits an omnidirectional pulse of light with each rotation of said beams, thereby indicating the heading of the beams at an instant during the rotation.

7. The system of claim 5 in which least squares estimation is utilized to determine the most likely position of the machine, based on the data from the optical sensor and the GNSS receiver.

8. A system for determining an estimate of the position of a machine in three dimensions, comprising:

a laser transmitter that projects two or more fan-shaped laser beams and rotates the laser beams about a generally vertical axis, the relative orientation of said two or more fan-shaped laser beams being maintained such that said beams diverge in a plane other than horizontal plane, with the fan-shaped laser beams differing in inclination angle with respect to the horizontal,

a GNSS receiver on the machine for receiving satellite signals for use in determining the position of the machine in three dimensions, the GNSS receiver having a GNSS antenna mounted on the machine,

an optical sensor on the machine for receiving the fan-shaped laser beams, and

a device on the machine, receiving data from the GNSS receiver and data from the optical sensor, to determine an estimate of the position of the machine in three dimensions from said data, said device utilizing data received from said optical sensor and data received from said GNSS receiver to determine an estimate of the machine position in three dimensions.

9. The system of claim 8 in which said laser transmitter projects a pair of fan shaped beams of laser light, and in which the optical sensor is responsive to both of said beams for determining position.

10. The system of claim 8 in which a least squares approximation is utilized to determine the most likely position in three dimensions, the most likely position in each of the three dimensions being based on the data from both the optical sensor and the GNSS receiver.

11. The system of claim 8 in which said device on the machine effects control of the position of said implement based on a sensed position and a desired position.

12. A system for determining position, comprising:

a laser transmitter that projects at least one laser beam that rotates about a generally vertical axis, said laser transmitter being located at a known position,

a GNSS receiver having a GNSS antenna for determining the position of the GNSS antenna with respect to a plurality of satellites, said satellites being located at known positions,

an optical sensor for receiving the laser beam, said optical sensor being displaced a known distance from the phase center of said GNSS antenna, and

a device, receiving outputs from the GNSS receiver and outputs from the optical sensor, to determine the position of the sensor and the receiver, said device utilizing outputs from the optical sensor in lieu of signals from an additional GNSS satellite so as to improve the estimate of position of the sensor and receiver.

13. The system of claim 12 in which said laser transmitter projects a pair of fan shaped beams of laser light, and in which the optical sensor is responsive to both of said beams.

14. The system of claim 12 in which said GNSS antenna and said optical sensor are located on the same mast in close proximity.

15. The system of claim 12 in which the device uses the outputs from said optical sensor in lieu of outputs from an additional GNSS satellite, said outputs from said optical sensor being used to simulate a GNSS satellite located at the center of the earth.

16. The system of claim 12 in which a least squares approximation is utilized to determine the most likely position of the optical sensor and GNSS receiver, based on the outputs from the optical sensor and the GNSS receiver.

17. An improved position estimating system, comprising:

a global navigation satellite receiver including an antenna, configured to provide first data for position estimation in response to reception of signals from a plurality of satellites,

a laser transmitter providing a reference beam of laser light,

at least one optical sensor with a known position relative to said antenna, configured to provide second data for position estimation based on reception of said reference beam of laser light, and

a computing device, responsive to said first data and said second data, configured to combine and process said first and said second data to determine an estimate of the position of said receiver and said antenna, in which said second data is combined with said first data before determination of said estimate of position by using said second data to simulate the receipt of signals from a satellite.

18. The improved position estimating system of claim 17, in which said computing device is configured to combine and process said first data and second data to determine an estimate of the position of said receiver and said antenna, with said second data being used to simulate the data that would be generated by the receipt of signals from a satellite located at the center of the earth.

19. The improved position estimating system of claim 17, in which a least squares approximation is utilized to determine the most likely estimate of position in three dimensions, based on the data from the optical sensor and the global navigation satellite receiver.

20. The improved position estimating system of claim 17, in which said global navigation satellite receiver is closely positioned to said at least one optical sensor.