Movable Object Proximity Warning System

• US 20120139743A1
• Filed: 06/12/2009
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAFEmine AG (Hexagon AB)
• Original Assignee: SAFEmine AG (Hexagon AB)
• Inventors: Rothacher, Urs Martin, Stegmaier, Peter Arnold
• Granted Patent: US 8,779,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/686.6
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 9/02 Anti-collision systems

Abstract

Vehicles and other objects (4a, 4b, 4c, 5, 6, 7, 8) in a surface mine (1) are equipped with monitoring devices (12) that communicate by radio in order to detect the risk of collisions. The devices (12) are equipped with GNSS-receivers (15). At least one of the objects (4a, 4b, 4c) has two devices (12a, 12b) mounted to it. Each of the two devices (12a, 12b) determines its position independently, which in turn allows to determine not only the position, but also the orientation, of the object.

Claims

1. A system for a movable object with a first monitoring device, said first monitoring device comprising

a first receiver for a radio based positioning system,

a first control unit for generating first device status datasets, wherein said first device status datasets comprise positional data derived from a signal of said first receiver,

a first radio circuit for broadcasting device status datasets to other monitoring devices,

a first output device adapted to issue proximity warnings,

wherein said first control unit is structured for generating said proximity warnings in dependence of the signal from said first receiver and of device status datasets received from other devices,

characterized in that said object comprises at least one second monitoring device, wherein said second monitoring device comprises

a second receiver for the radio based positioning system,

a second control unit for generating second device status datasets, wherein said second device status datasets comprise positional data derived from a signal of said second receiver,

a second radio circuit for broadcasting said second device status datasets to other monitoring devices,

wherein said first and said second monitoring devices are arranged on said object at a distance from each other.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said first device is structured to receive the second device status dataset and derive a reserved non-circular volume of space attributed to said object and to encode said volume of space in said first device status dataset.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein each said first device and said second device are structured to encode a first and a second circular volume of space in said first and second device dataset, respectively.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said first and said second circular volume overlap.

5. The system of claim 1 comprising at least three monitoring devices.

6. A movable object comprising a system of claim 1, wherein said first and said second monitoring devices are mounted to said movable object at a distance from each other.

7. The movable object of claim 6 wherein said movable object is one of the group consisting of a vehicle, cranes, draglines, haul trucks, diggers and shovels.

8. A method for generating proximity warnings on an area by means of a monitoring apparatus comprising a plurality of monitoring devices, wherein at least some of said monitoring devices are installed on objects operating in said area, wherein at least part of said monitoring devices comprise a receiver for a radio based positioning system and a radio circuit, said method comprising the steps of

mounting, to at least one movable first object in said area, a first and a second monitoring device at a distance from each other,

generating, by means of said first monitoring device, a first device status dataset depending on a position of said first monitoring device, and emitting said first device status dataset through the radio circuit of said first monitoring device

generating, by means of said second monitoring device, a second device status dataset derived from a position of said second monitoring device, and emitting said second device status dataset through the radio circuit of said second monitoring device.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of

receiving, by said first monitoring device, said second device status dataset,

deriving, in said first monitoring device, from a position of said first device and from said second device status dataset, a reserved, non-circular volume of space attributed to said first object and encoding said non-circular volume of space in said first device status dataset, and

broadcasting said first device status dataset to other monitoring devices.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising the step of encoding, in the device status dataset of said second device, data indicating that the second device is an auxiliary device and its device status dataset can therefore be ignored by any other devices with the exception of a main device attributed to said second device.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of

encoding, by said first and second monitoring devices, first and second reserved volumes of space in said first and second device status datasets, respectively,

receiving, by a third monitoring device on an object other than said first object, said first and second device status datasets,

determining, by the third monitoring device, collision warnings by combining information from the first and the second device status dataset.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said first and said second volumes of space are circular and overlap.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said first monitoring device suppresses any proximity warnings that would arise from a proximity of the first and the second monitoring devices.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of

receiving, by said first monitoring device, the second device status dataset,

deriving, from a position of the first device and from the second device status dataset, an orientation of the first movable object,

receiving, by said first monitoring device, a third device status dataset from a third monitoring device mounted to a second movable object,

determining a direction to the second movable object in respect to said orientation, and

displaying data indicative of said direction on a display of said first monitoring device.

17. A monitoring device comprising a control unit adapted and structured to carry out the method of claim 8.

15. A method for generating proximity warnings in an area by means of a monitoring apparatus comprising a plurality of monitoring devices, wherein at least some of said monitoring devices are installed on at least a first and a second movable object operating in said area, wherein at least part of said monitoring devices comprise a receiver for a radio based positioning system and a radio circuit, said method comprising the steps of

receiving, on said second object, device status datasets from the first movable object, wherein said device status datasets of said first object are generated by a first and a second monitoring device mounted at a distance from each other on said first movable object, and

generating, by the monitoring device of the second movable object, proximity warnings by taking an orientation and dimension of said first movable object into account.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the device status dataset of the first monitoring device on the first movable object contains the information of the device status dataset from the second monitoring device on the first movable object, wherein the monitoring device of the second movable object derives orientation information on the first movable object from said device status dataset.