WIRELESS TERMINAL POSITIONING SYSTEM, METHOD OF POSITIONING WIRELESS TERMINAL, ENVIRONMENT MEASURMENT SYSTEM, FACILITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, METHOD OF MEASURING ENVIRONMENT, AND METHOD OF DECIDING DESTINATION OF WIRELESS MOBILE TERMINAL

• US 20110141909A1
• Filed: 03/13/2009
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Kushiro, Noriyuki, Hibara, Naoyuki, Nakata, Masanori, Koizumi, Yoshiaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,717,952 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

To obtain a method of positioning a wireless terminal capable of obtaining the position of each communication terminal by measuring distances with installed communication terminals each other without fixedly installing a base station.

A positioning management terminal 100 includes a positioning object decision section 130 that selects a terminal to be positioned, which is a positioning object, and a positioning standard terminal, whose position is known, among the wireless terminals 200; a positioning management section 120 that requires distance information between the terminal to be positioned and the positioning standard terminal; and a position calculation section 140 that calculates the position of the terminal to be positioned. The positioning management section 120 requires distance information from the positioning standard terminal selected by the positioning object decision section 130 to the terminal to be positioned selected by the positioning object decision section 130. The position calculation section 140 calculates the position of the terminal to be positioned using the distance information and position information of the positioning standard terminal.

Claims

1. A wireless terminal positioning system including one or a plurality of wireless terminals and a positioning management terminal that manages positioning of said wireless terminal, wherein

said positioning management terminal includes:

a positioning object decision section that selects a terminal to be positioned which is a positioning object and a positioning standard terminal whose position is known from among said wireless terminals;

a positioning management section that requires distance information between said terminal to be positioned and said positioning standard terminal;

a position calculation section that calculates the position of said terminal to be positioned; and

a storage section that keeps an adjacent terminal list that wireless signals of said wireless terminal reach,

said wireless terminal includes

a distance measurement section that measures the distance from an adjacent terminal that wireless signals of said wireless terminal reach and

a communication section that transmits measurement results of said distance measurement section to said positioning management terminal; and

wherein

said positioning management section requires distance information from said positioning standard terminal selected by said positioning object decision section to said terminal to be positioned selected by said positioning object decision section, and

said position calculation section calculates the position of said terminal to be positioned using the distance information and position information of said positioning standard terminal.

2. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said positioning object decision section repeatedly selects said terminal to be positioned and said positioning standard terminal until said position calculation section calculates positions of all said wireless terminals, and

said positioning management section requires distance information between said terminal to be positioned and said positioning standard terminal for each repetition.

3. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

when said position calculation section calculates N-dimension coordinates of said terminal to be positioned,

said positioning object decision section selects said wireless terminal having at least N+1 said adjacent terminals whose positions are known as said terminal to be positioned, and

selects at least said N+1 said adjacent terminals as said positioning standard terminals.

4. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said wireless terminal includes an adjacent terminal search section that searches the adjacent terminal that wireless signals reach,

said positioning management terminal requires an adjacent terminal list of the wireless terminal to said wireless terminal,

said adjacent terminal search section searches the adjacent terminal of the relevant wireless terminal based on the request to transmit the resultant adjacent terminal list to said positioning management terminal, and

said positioning management terminal stores the adjacent terminal list in said storage section.

5. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 4, wherein

said positioning management section requires an adjacent terminal list of the wireless terminal to said wireless terminal,

said positioning object decision section selects said positioning standard terminal among wireless terminals contained in the adjacent terminal list.

6. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said storage section stores position information of said wireless terminal and distance information from said wireless terminal to said adjacent terminal, and

said positioning object decision section calculates a precision index value of said position information based on said position information and said distance information.

7. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 6, wherein

said positioning object decision section calculates a distance between a position shown by position information of said wireless terminal and a position shown by position information of said adjacent terminal of the wireless terminal based on each position information, and

obtains distance information from the wireless terminal to said adjacent terminal from said storage section to calculate a precision index value of said position information based on a difference of the both.

8. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 6, wherein

said positioning object decision section selects said terminal to be positioned or said positioning standard terminal so that the precision index value of said position information becomes the highest.

9. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said positioning management section requires distance information between the wireless terminal and the adjacent terminal to said wireless terminal,

said position calculation section calculates a relative position of the relevant wireless terminal using the distance information.

10. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein,

after said position calculation section calculates positions of all said wireless terminals, said positioning management section requires distance information from other wireless terminals to any of said wireless terminals, and

said position calculation section re-calculates positions of said wireless terminals using the distance information.

11. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said positioning management terminal includes a second distance positioning section that measures the distance from an adjacent terminal that wireless signals of the relevant positioning management terminal reaches, and

said position calculation section calculates the position of the relevant positioning management terminal using distance information measured by said second distance measurement section and position information of said positioning standard terminal.

12. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said positioning management terminal includes a second adjacent terminal search section that searches the adjacent terminal that wireless signals reach, and

said second adjacent terminal search section stores the adjacent terminal list obtained by searching to said storage section.

13. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said distance measurement section measures the distance between said wireless terminals using a radio wave propagation time of the wireless signal.

14. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 13, wherein

said communication section uses an ultra wideband signal that transmits an impulse signal for the wireless signal in use when said distance measurement section measures the distance between said wireless terminals.

15. The wireless terminal positioning system of claim 1, wherein

said communication section performs multi-hop communication.

16-20. -20. (canceled)

21. An environment measurement system that measures environmental conditions of a measurement object space, comprising:

a fixed sensor terminal fixedly installed in said measurement object space;

a mobile sensor terminal that moves in said measurement object space; and

measurement means that measures the position of said mobile sensor terminal, wherein

said fixed sensor terminal measures environmental conditions neighboring an installation location of a self-terminal,

said fixed sensor terminal and said mobile sensor terminal transmit or receive signals that perform positioning of the position of said mobile sensor terminal by wireless communication,

said positioning means performs positioning of the position of said mobile sensor terminal using the signals, and

said mobile sensor terminal measures environmental conditions neighboring the self-terminal while grasping the position of the self-terminal in said measurement object space using the positioning results.

22. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said mobile sensor terminal holds &

list of measurement points whose environmental conditions in said measurement object space should be measured,

selects the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured next from said list,

decides movement amount of the self-terminal from the measurement point and the current position of the self-terminal based on positioning results of said positioning means to move to the measurement point, and

measures environmental conditions of the relevant measurement point.

23. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said mobile sensor terminal selects a measurement point whose distance from at least three or more said fixed sensor terminals is less than a predetermined threshold value as the measurement point whose environment conditions needs to be measured next when selecting the measurement point whose environment conditions needs to be measured next from said list.

24. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said fixed sensor terminal is installed in a region where said mobile sensor terminal has to measure environment conditions more frequently than the region where said mobile sensor terminal measures environment conditions.

31. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said mobile sensor terminal holds a list in which a typical point of each region is made to be said measurement point as the list of the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured in said measurement object space upon partitioning said measurement object space into a lattice-shape region of a predetermined interval.

32. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said mobile sensor terminal holds a list in which a typical point of said lattice-shape region where no fixedly installed fixed sensor terminal exists is made to be the measurement point as the list of the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured in said measurement object space upon partitioning said measurement object space into a lattice-shape region of a predetermined interval.

33. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said mobile sensor terminal includes a mobile cart capable of moving on the two-dimension plane and a support table that supports a sensor for measuring environmental conditions of said measurement object space, and

a plurality of said sensors are provided on said support table along a vertical direction.

34. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

each said sensor terminal performs wireless communication using an ultra wide band wireless signal.

35. The environment measurement system of claim 21, wherein

said positioning means detects the position of said mobile sensor terminal based on any of a received radio wave intensity, a radio wave propagation time, or a radio wave propagation time difference, or a combination thereof.

36. A facility management system, comprising:

the environment measurement system of claim 21, and

a facility management apparatus that controls operation of facility equipment, wherein

said facility management apparatus obtains measurement data of environmental conditions measured by said environment measurement system to control the operation of said facility equipment based on the measurement data.

25. An environment measurement system that measures environmental conditions of a measurement object space, comprising:

a plurality of mobile sensor terminals that move in said measurement object space; and

positioning means that measures the positions of said mobile sensor terminals, wherein

said positioning means selects one of said mobile sensor terminals as a position detection object terminal, and at the same time, selects other mobile sensor terminals as position detection standard terminals,

said position detection object terminal and said position detection standard terminals transmit or receive signals for positioning of said position detection object terminal through wireless communication,

said positioning means uses the signal to position said position detection object terminal, and

said position detection object terminal measures environment conditions neighboring the self-terminal while grasping the position of the self-terminal in said measurement object space using the positioning results.

26. The environment measurement system of claim 25, wherein

said position detection object terminal

holds a list of measurement points whose environmental conditions needs to be measured in said measurement object space,

selects the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured from said list,

decides the movement amount of the self-terminal from the measurement point and the current position of the self-terminal based on positioning results of said positioning means to move to the measurement point, and

measures environmental conditions of the relevant measurement point.

27. The environment measurement system of claim 25, wherein

said position detection object terminal selects the measurement point whose distances from at least three said position detection standard terminals are a predetermined value or less as a measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured next when selecting a measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured next from said list.

28. The environment measurement system of claim 25, wherein

said positioning means selects said mobile sensor terminal located furthest from the measurement point as said position detection object terminal after said position detection object terminal decides the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured next.

29. The environment measurement system of claim 25, wherein

said positioning means reselects one of said mobile sensor terminals as the position detection object terminal and reselects other mobile sensor terminals as position detection object terminals after said position detection standard terminal measures environmental conditions neighboring the self-terminal.

30. The environment measurement system of claim 25, wherein

said positioning means selects at least three said mobile sensor terminals whose distance from the measurement point is a predetermined threshold value or less as the position detection standard terminal after said position detection object terminal decides the measurement point whose environmental conditions needs to be measured next.

37-39. -39. (canceled)