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Vehicle which is steerable along a guide wire lying in the ground

  • US 4,310,789 A
  • Filed: 04/15/1980
  • Issued: 01/12/1982
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/12/1979
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In a vehicle comprising steerable wheel means, position control means for controlling the position of said steerable wheel means to steer the vehicle in response to a position control signal, and a system for generating said position control signal so as to steer the vehicle along a signal-emitting guide wire lying in the ground, said system comprising a sensor array including first and second pick-ups which are fixed to the vehicle and aligned with each other in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and extend each on both sides of the longitudinal center line of the vehicle and are adapted to generate pick-up signals in response to signals emitted by said guide wire, said system further comprising first and second signal-processing circuits respectively connected to said first and second pick-ups to receive said pick-up signals therefrom, said first signal-processing circuit being arranged to generate a heading signal representing the heading angle between the longitudinal center line of the vehicle and the general direction of a portion of said guide wire near said sensor array in response to said pick-up signals from said first pick-up, said second signal-processing circuit being arranged to generate a displacement signal representing the lateral displacement of the longitudinal center line of the vehicle near said sensor from said guide wire, said system further comprising a signal-combining circuit, which is adapted to receive and combine said heading and displacement signals and to generate said position control signal in dependence on said heading and displacement signalsthe improvement which resides in thatsaid sensor array extends only over a small fraction of the length of said vehicle,said system comprises a curvature detector arranged to generate a curvature signal representing the curvature of a bend of said guide wire near said sensor array, andsaid signal-combining circuit is arranged to generate said position control signal in dependence on said heading, displacement and curvature signals when said vehicle is traveling along a bend of said guide wire.

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