APPARATUS FOR RECOGNIZING POSITION USING RANGE SIGNALS AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20110320123A1
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: CHOI, Hyun-Do, PARK, Jun-Ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,416 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/300
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/0209 Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/028 using a RF signal

Abstract

A position recognizing apparatus and method is provided. The position recognizing apparatus includes a range sensor which senses a distance between the position recognizing apparatus and a range landmark, and a candidate range landmark information generating unit which generates information about candidate range landmarks. The candidate range landmark information is modeled using a position and a posture of the position recognizing apparatus, the sensed distance and an angle between the range landmark and the position recognizing apparatus. The position recognizing apparatus further includes a range landmark extracting unit which, if a new distance is sensed, updates the candidate range landmark information and extracts actual range landmark information from the candidate range landmark information, and a position recognizing unit which recognizes a position of the position recognizing apparatus based on the extracted actual range landmark information.

Claims

1. A position recognizing apparatus comprising:

a range sensor which senses a distance between the position recognizing apparatus and a range landmark;

a candidate range landmark information generating unit which generates a candidate range landmark information that is modeled using a position and a posture of the position recognizing apparatus, the sensed distance and an angle between the range landmark and the position recognizing apparatus;

a range landmark extracting unit which, if a new distance is sensed, updates the candidate range landmark information and extracts actual range landmark information from the candidate range landmark information; and

a position recognizing unit which recognizes a position of the position recognizing apparatus based on the extracted actual range landmark information.

2. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the candidate range landmark information generating unit models the candidate range landmark information in a polar coordinate system if a range signal generator corresponding to the range landmark is located at an identical plane to a plane where the position recognizing apparatus moves.

3. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the candidate range landmark information generating unit models the candidate range landmark information in a spherical coordinate system if a range signal generator corresponding to the range landmark is located at a plane different from a plane where the position recognizing apparatus moves.

4. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the candidate range landmark information generating unit generates the candidate range landmark information based on a travelling direction of the position recognizing apparatus.

5. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the candidate range landmark information is modeled in the polar coordinate system, and the candidate range landmark information generating unit generates the candidate range landmark mark information at a first angular position which is distant from the position recognizing apparatus by the sensed distance in the travelling direction of the position recognizing apparatus, at a second angular position which proceeds from the first angular position by a preset angle based on the travelling direction of the position recognizing apparatus, and a third angular position which recedes from the first angular position by a preset angle based on the travelling direction of the position recognizing apparatus.

6. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the candidate range landmark mark information is modeled as the spherical coordinate system, the spherical coordinate system is divided into a lower part, an upper part, a front part and a rear part with respect to the travelling direction of the localization apparatus, and the candidate range landmark information generating unit generates the candidate range landmark mark information covering both of the front part and the upper part.

7. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the range landmark extracting unit determines the actual range landmark information by use of a covariance of the updated candidate range landmark information.

8. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the range landmark extracting unit performs a number of updates on the candidate range landmark information and determines candidate range landmark information producing a smallest covariance value among the candidate range landmark information, as the actual range landmark information.

9. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the range landmark extracting unit determines candidate range landmark information producing a covariance value having a highest convergence speed among the candidate range landmark information, as the actual range landmark information.

10. The position recognizing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the range landmark extracting unit uses at least one of a position of the position recognizing apparatus estimated using an image landmark and a position of the position recognizing apparatus estimated using previously registered range landmark information.

11. A position recognizing method comprising:

sensing a distance between a range landmark and a position recognizing apparatus;

generating candidate range landmark information that is modeled using a position and a posture of the position recognizing apparatus, the sensed distance and an angle between the range landmark and the position recognizing apparatus;

if a new distance is sensed, updating the candidate range landmark information;

extracting actual range landmark information from the candidate range landmark information by use of a result of the updating; and

recognizing a position of the position recognizing apparatus based on the extracted actual range landmark information.

12. The position recognizing method of claim 11, wherein the generating the candidate range landmark information comprises modeling the candidate range landmark information in a polar coordinate system if a range signal generator corresponding to the range landmark is located at an identical plane to a plane where the position recognizing apparatus moves.

13. The position recognizing method of claim 11, wherein the generating the candidate range landmark information comprises modeling the candidate range landmark information in a spherical coordinate system if a range signal generator corresponding to the range landmark is located at a plane different from a plane where the position recognizing apparatus moves.

14. The position recognizing method of claim 11, wherein the generating the candidate range landmark information comprises generating candidate range landmark information based on a travelling direction of the position recognizing apparatus.

15. The position recognizing method of claim 14, wherein the extracting the actual range landmark information is performed by use of a covariance of the updated candidate range landmark information.

16. The position recognizing method of claim 15, wherein the extracting the actual range landmark information comprises performing a number of updates on the candidate range landmark information and determining candidate range landmark information producing a smallest covariance value among the candidate range landmark information, as the actual range landmark information.

17. The position recognizing method of claim 15, wherein the extracting the actual range landmark information comprises determining candidate range landmark information producing a covariance value having a highest convergence speed among the candidate range landmark information, as the actual range landmark information.