MOBILE STATION POSITION LOCATING METHOD

• US 20100013712A1
• Filed: 09/25/2009
• Published: 01/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Yano, Yoshiki
• Application Number:
  US12/567,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20100013712A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/463
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/876 Combination of several spaced transponders or reflectors of known location for determining the position of a receiver G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0081 Transmission between base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Abstract

A mobile station position locating method is provided for accurately locating positions of base stations without actually locating the positions of the base stations for locating the mobile station. In a transmit and receiving time detecting step (S6, S7), transmitting times ts1 to ts4 of radio waves transmitted from plural stationary transmitters C1 to C4 set up in known positions, and receiving times s1 to s4, i.e., propagation times of the radio waves are detected. In a base-station position calculating step (S4), positions (Xn, Yn, Zn; n=1 to 4) of the base stations K1 to K4 are calculated based on propagation distances l1, l2, l3 and l4 between the plural stationary transmitters C1 to C4, and a predetermined base station K1 calculated based on the transmitting times ts1 to ts4 of the receiving times s1 to s4 of the radio waves, and the known positions (xn, yn, zn; n=1˜4) of the stationary transmitters C1 to C4. This enables the positions of the base stations K1 to K4 to be accurately located without actually measuring the positions of thereof.

Claims

1. A mobile station position locating method for locating a position of the mobile station based on propagation times of the radio waves, transmitted and received between a mobile station and plural base stations, and positions of the plural base stations, the mobile station position locating method comprising:

base-station position calculating step that calculates the positions of the plural base stations, based on the propagation times of the radio waves transmitted from plural stationary transmitters set up at plural known positions in a position locating space for the mobile station respectively to the plural base stations, and the known positions of the plural stationary transmitters.

2. The mobile station position locating method according to claim 1, further comprising stationary-transmitter setting-up step that sets up the plural stationary transmitters at a place already positionally determined based on electronic data.

3. The mobile station position locating method according to claim 2, wherein the stationary-transmitter setting-up step sets up the plural stationary transmitters at four places or more in the position locating space.

4. The mobile station position locating method according to claim 2, wherein the stationary-transmitter setting-up step set up the plural stationary transmitters at corner portions thereof or at fixed positions spaced from the corner portions in the position locating space.

5. The mobile station position locating method according to claim 1, further comprising:

stationary-transmitter clock tuning step that calculates clock gaps between the plural stationary transmitters based on (i) the propagation times of the radio waves calculated based on distances between the plural stationary transmitters depending on the known positions of the plural stationary transmitters, and speeds of the radio waves, and (ii) actually measured propagation time of the radio waves representing time periods between a transmitting time of a radio wave transmitted from one of the plural stationary transmitters and a receiving time of the radio wave received at the other stationary transmitters; and

the base-station position calculating step that calculates propagation distances based on the propagation times of the radio waves transmitted from the plural stationary transmitters to the plural base stations with considering the clock gaps between the stationary transmitters, and then calculates the positions of the plural base stations based on the propagation distances and the known positions of the stationary transmitters.

6. The mobile station position locating method according to claim 1, further comprising:

base-station clock tuning step that calculates mutual clock gaps between the base stations based on (i) the propagation times of the radio waves calculated based on distances between the plural base stations obtained by the base-station position calculating step, and speeds of the radio waves, and (ii) actually measured propagation times of the radio waves representing time periods between a transmitting time of the radio wave transmitted from one of the plural base stations and a receiving time of the radio wave received at the other base stations; and

mobile-station position calculating step that calculates the position of the mobile station based on the propagation distances calculated based on the propagation time of the radio wave transmitted from the mobile station to the plural base stations with considering the mutual clock gaps between the base stations, and positions of the base stations calculated by the base-station position calculating step.