GNSS GUIDANCE AND MACHINE CONTROL
First Claim
1. A GNSS guidance and control method for snow grooming, which method comprises the steps of:
- providing a snow grooming plan including design elevations for a finished snow surface;
providing a vehicle equipped with snow grooming equipment;
equipping the vehicle with a GNSS system including multiple GNSS antennas, a GNSS receiver connected to the antennas and a programmable controller connected to the GNSS receiver;
programming the controller to compute GNSS-defined positions of said antennas using GNSS ranging information;
determining with the GNSS-defined antenna positions vehicle position and attitude in three dimensions (3-D);
providing a sensor connected to the snow grooming equipment;
outputting from said sensor a signal corresponding to a condition of said snow grooming equipment; and
guiding said vehicle and the snow grooming equipment with the controller based on said vehicle position and attitude, said snow grooming equipment condition and said grading plan.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A global navigation satellite sensor system (GNSS) and gyroscope control system for vehicle steering control comprising a GNSS receiver and antennas at a fixed spacing to determine a vehicle position, velocity and at least one of a heading angle, a pitch angle and a roll angle based on carrier phase position differences. The roll angle facilitates correction of the lateral motion induced position errors resultant from motion of the antennae as the vehicle moves based on an offset to ground and the roll angle. Alternative aspects include multiple-antenna GNSS guidance methods for high-dynamic roll compensation, real-time kinematic (RTK) using single-frequency (L1) receivers, fixed and moving baselines between antennas, multi-position GNSS tail guidance (“breadcrumb following”) for crosstrack error correction, guiding multiple vehicles and pieces of equipment relative to each other, and snow grooming equipment and method applications.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A GNSS guidance and control method for snow grooming, which method comprises the steps of:
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providing a snow grooming plan including design elevations for a finished snow surface; providing a vehicle equipped with snow grooming equipment; equipping the vehicle with a GNSS system including multiple GNSS antennas, a GNSS receiver connected to the antennas and a programmable controller connected to the GNSS receiver; programming the controller to compute GNSS-defined positions of said antennas using GNSS ranging information; determining with the GNSS-defined antenna positions vehicle position and attitude in three dimensions (3-D); providing a sensor connected to the snow grooming equipment; outputting from said sensor a signal corresponding to a condition of said snow grooming equipment; and guiding said vehicle and the snow grooming equipment with the controller based on said vehicle position and attitude, said snow grooming equipment condition and said grading plan. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A GNSS-based machine guidance and control method, which method comprises the steps of:
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providing a snow grooming plan including design elevations defining a finished snow surface; providing a vehicle equipped with snow grooming equipment; equipping the vehicle with a GNSS system including multiple GNSS antennas, a GNSS receiver connected to the antennas and a programmable controller connected to the GNSS receiver; programming the controller to compute GNSS-defined positions of said antennas using GNSS ranging information; determining with the GNSS-defined antenna positions vehicle position and attitude in three dimensions (3-D); providing a sensor connected to the snow grooming equipment; outputting from said sensor a signal corresponding to a condition of said snow grooming equipment; and guiding said vehicle and the snow grooming equipment with the controller based on said vehicle position and attitude, said snow grooming equipment condition and said grading plan; programming the controller with GNSS-defined snow grooming information including underlying grade elevations, existing snow base elevations and groomed snow surface elevations; interpolating or extrapolating said snow grooming elevation information with said controller utilizing the elevations of adjacent surface points for estimating the elevations of additional snow surface points; providing a base including a base GNSS receiver and a base GNSS transmitter; using said base for providing differential corrections to said vehicle-mounted GNSS subsystem; and comparing with said controller said snow grooming information and said snow grooming equipment condition; and guiding said vehicle and operating said snow grooming equipment based on said comparison using a real-time kinematic (RTK) procedure.
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23. A GNSS guidance method for a vehicle, which method comprises the steps of:
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determining a route for the vehicle; equipping the vehicle with a GNSS system including multiple GNSS antennas, a GNSS receiver connected to the antennas and a programmable controller connected to the GNSS receiver; programming the controller to compute GNSS-defined positions of said antennas using GNSS ranging information; determining with the GNSS-defined antenna positions vehicle position and attitude in three dimensions (3-D); guiding said vehicle with the controller based on said vehicle position and attitude; and saving in said computer a series of GNSS-defined positions trailing said vehicle along said route. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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25. A system for GNSS guidance and control for snow grooming, which system comprises:
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a snow vehicle; snow grooming equipment movably mounted on said vehicle and adapted for a snow grooming operation; a GNSS system including multiple GNSS antennas mounted on said vehicle and on said equipment, a GNSS receiver connected to the antennas and a programmable controller connected to the GNSS receiver; the controller being programmable to locate said antennas using GNSS; a sensor connected to the snow grooming equipment and adapted for sensing a condition of said equipment and providing an output corresponding to said equipment condition; said controller adapted for receiving said equipment condition sensor output as input and adjusting said equipment operating condition in response to said equipment condition input; and said controller being adapted to receive information corresponding to underlying grade elevations, snow base depths and finished snow surface elevations. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification