System for determining the movement of a swaying structure

• US 8,604,964 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: Eidloth, Andreas, Franke, Norbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B
• Application Number:
  US13/124,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20110304499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• Field of Search: 342/28, 342/59, 342/95, 342/114, 342/125, 342/173, 342/174, 342/450, 342/463
• US Class Current: 342/28
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Abstract

A system for determining the movement of a swaying structure, on which a receiver is fixedly mounted, is proposed, wherein at least three reference transmitters having known and fixed positions are provided and transmit the transmission signals received by the receiver at defined carrier frequencies. In addition, an evaluation unit is provided, which determines measured phase values from the received signals, taking into account the defined carrier frequency, wherein the distance from the reference transmitters and the changes in position of the receiver and therefore of the swaying structure can be calculated from said phase values.

Claims

1. An arrangement for calibrating a radio system for determining the position of at least one mobile transmitter in a three-dimensional space using a plurality of receivers of which at least one is fastened to a structure swaying due to environmental influences and comprising a system including

at least three reference transmitters having a respective known and fixed position whose transmitted signals are formed as signals modulated onto a carrier whereby the carriers of the at least three reference transmitters have the same defined carrier frequency,

an evaluation device which is configured to determine measured phase values from the transmitted signals of the individual reference transmitters received by the receiver fastened to the swaying structure while taking account of the defined carrier frequency, from which measured phase values the distance respectively from the reference transmitters and the position change of the receiver at the swaying structure, can be calculated,

wherein a further evaluation device is provided which calculates the position of the mobile transmitter taking account of the position change of the receiver fastened to the structure in the determination of the position of the mobile transmitter.

2. The arrangement in accordance with claim 1, wherein the evaluation device is configured to calculate the distance between the receiver at the swaying structure and the respective reference transmitter from

3. The arrangement in accordance with claim 2, wherein the evaluation device is configured to initially determine the respective offset by a position of the structure which is measured by a measuring device, by the position of the fixed reference transmitters and by a first phase measurement.

4. The arrangement in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least three fixed reference transmitters having a known position and the one receiver fixed to the swaying structure are synchronized in time.

5. The arrangement in accordance with claim 1, wherein, in addition to the receiver at the swaying structure, at least one of the plurality of the receivers is a fixed receiver of a known position, wherein the reference transmitters are not synchronized and the swaying receiver and the fixed receiver are synchronized and the transmission times of the respective reference transmitters of a known position can be calculated via the respective received signals of the fixed transmitter.

6. The arrangement in accordance with claim 2, wherein the evaluation device is configured to adapt the value of the respective offset when temperature changes in the system occur, wherein the measured value change due to the temperature change can be detected via filtering processes.

7. The arrangement in accordance with claim 2, wherein the evaluation device is configured to compensate a possible deviation of the position of the swaying structure from the measured position at the start of the determination by changing the values of the respective offset via mean value evaluation of the measured position values.

8. The arrangement in accordance with claim 2, wherein the evaluation device is configured to adapt the values of the respective offset for the compensation of 2π

phase jumps of the measured phase values, wherein an abrupt distance change is evaluated.