Methods and apparatus for using position/attitude information to enhance a vehicle guidance system

• US 8,626,441 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2008
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AGCO Corporation
• Original Assignee: AGCO Corporation
• Inventors: Matthews, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Rangrej, Sheetal R
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TRANG T
• Application Number:
  US12/140,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20090312948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,030 Days
• Field of Search: 701/214, 701/408, 701/473, 701/479, 701/480
• US Class Current: 701/480
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0278 using satellite positioning signals, e.g. GPS

Abstract

An enhanced vehicle guidance system comprising a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver and a data processor with a memory component and a computing device. The method of enhancing a vehicle'"'"'s guidance system may comprise calculating the altitude, latitude, and longitude of a GNSS receiver for each of a plurality of positions; calculating the incline angle between adjacent points; and using the calculated incline angles to infer the attitude of the vehicle at any of the plurality of positions. The attitude may be used to calculated an inertial correction factor to compensate for GNSS position inaccuracies induced as a result of the vehicle rolling and pitching on uneven terrain. The altitude, latitude, longitude, and attitude of the plurality of positions may be stored in the memory such that the system may look-up the attitude for a given position without recalculating the attitude and without using an inertial sensor.

Claims

1. A method of enhancing a vehicle'"'"'s guidance system having only one geographic coordinate-determining component, the method comprising:

receiving, with a computing device of the guidance system, a plurality of geographic coordinates of an elevated portion of the vehicle as sensed by the geographic coordinate-determining component while the vehicle travels within a particular area of land;

calculating, with the computing device, slopes between each of the geographic coordinates using only the geographic coordinates without information from any other sensors; and

calculating, with the computing device, the attitude of the vehicle at any geographic coordinate within the particular area of land using the calculated slopes between the plurality of geographic coordinates without using an angle measuring device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a ground position of the vehicle based on the attitude of the vehicle at any geographic coordinate within the particular area of land.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining output, with the computing device, from an inertial sensor; and

comparing, with the computing device, the output from the inertial sensor with the calculated attitude to correct for errors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic coordinates each include an altitude, latitude, and longitude and are plotted by the computing device to create a terrain profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording the attitude for each of the plurality of geographic coordinates in a memory component and automatically accessing this data with the computing device upon subsequent visits to these geographic coordinates.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating or approximating, with the computing device, attitude, altitude, latitude, and longitude of an intermediate location between the plurality of geographic coordinates.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, with the computing device, an inertial correction factor based on the calculated attitude.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising solving for a ground position of the vehicle with the computing device by adding the inertial correction factor to a corresponding coordinate from the geographic coordinate-determining component.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising recording the inertial correction factor in a memory component for each of the plurality of geographic coordinates and automatically accessing with the computing device the corresponding inertial correction factor upon subsequent visits to any of the plurality of recorded geographic coordinates.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising recording the ground position for each of the plurality of geographic coordinates and automatically accessing the corresponding ground position with the computing device upon subsequent visits to these geographic coordinates.

11. The method of claim 5, 9, or 10, further comprising preemptively adjusting vehicle settings via the computing device based on the recorded data for upcoming geographic coordinates.

12. A method of enhancing a guidance system of a vehicle having a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver, the method comprising:

obtaining, with a computing device, latitude, longitude, and altitude data from the GNSS receiver for a plurality of positions in an area of land;

calculating, with the computing device, attitude data for each of the plurality of positions based only on the obtained latitude, longitude, and altitude data;

calculating, with the computing device, an inertial correction factor for each of the plurality of positions based on the attitude data for each of the plurality of positions; and

determining a ground position coordinate for each of the plurality of positions by adjusting, with the computing device, the obtained latitude and longitude based on the corresponding calculated inertial correction factor.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing the latitude, longitude, and attitude data for the plurality of positions in the area of land in a memory component.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising preemptively adjusting vehicle settings based on the recorded data for an upcoming position.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising automatically accessing, with the computing device, the attitude data from the memory component upon subsequent visits to any of the plurality of positions.

16. A method of enhancing a guidance system of a vehicle having a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver, a computing device, and a memory component, the method comprising:

obtaining, with the computing device, latitude, longitude, and altitude from the GNSS receiver for a plurality of GNSS receiver position points in an area of land;

calculating the slope between adjacent GNSS receiver position points using latitude, longitude, and altitude;

calculating, with the computing device, attitude information of the vehicle at any of the plurality of GNSS receiver position points using only the latitude, longitude, and altitude values from the GNSS receiver and the calculated slopes;

storing the latitude, longitude, and attitude data for the plurality of position points in the memory component;

calculating, with the computing device, an inertial correction factor for each of the plurality of position points based on the attitude data for each of the plurality of GNSS position points; and

adding, with the computing device, the inertial correction factors to their corresponding GNSS positions to determine a corrected vehicle position coordinate for each of the plurality of GNSS receiver position points.