Autonomous vehicle guidance system
First Claim
1. A system for guiding self-propelled equipment through passageways comprising:
- a signal generator attached to a vehicle for bouncing signals off walls of the passageways;
a receiver for receiving the signals bounced of the passageways and determining distance to side walls of the passageways;
a storage device containing a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways, each of said interlinking nodes containing steering information; and
a processor for comparing said distance of said side walls of the passageways and the interlinking nodes to steer the vehicle through the passageways and instructing the vehicle to operate according to said steering information contained in said interlinking nodes.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system guides self-propelled equipment through passageways, such as underground mine corridors. The vehicle contains a signal generator for bouncing signals off the walls of the passageways. A receiver collects the signals bounced off of the passageways to determine the distance to side walls of the passageways. A storage device contains a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways. Each of the nodes contains steering information. A processor finds the distance to the side walls of the passageways in order to steer the vehicle through the passageways. The system'"'"'s operational state and method of steering changes depending upon the location of the equipment in the interlinking nodes.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A system for guiding self-propelled equipment through passageways comprising:
-
a signal generator attached to a vehicle for bouncing signals off walls of the passageways; a receiver for receiving the signals bounced of the passageways and determining distance to side walls of the passageways; a storage device containing a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways, each of said interlinking nodes containing steering information; and a processor for comparing said distance of said side walls of the passageways and the interlinking nodes to steer the vehicle through the passageways and instructing the vehicle to operate according to said steering information contained in said interlinking nodes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A system for guiding self-propelled mining equipment through underground passageways comprising:
-
a laser attached to a vehicle for bouncing light off walls of the passageways; a receiver for receiving the light bounced of the passageways and determining distance to side walls of the passageways; a storage device containing a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways;
each of said interlinking nodes containing steering information; anda processor for comparing said distance of said side walls of the passageways and the interlinking nodes to steer the vehicle through the passageways and instructing the vehicle to change its method of steering according to said steering information contained in said interlinking nodes. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification