Determination of positions

• US 9,285,408 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2011
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Lammel, Gerhard, Eickmann, Jonas
• Primary Examiner(s): Koval, Melissa
• Assistant Examiner(s): Monsur, Nasima
• Application Number:
  US13/996,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20130314104A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 324/207.12, 324/207.13, 324/629, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/414.2, 455/456.6, 455/556.1, 701/472, 701/408, 701/468, 701/445, 701/469, 701/470, 701/500, 701/430, 701/522, 342/357.31, 342/357.2, 342/357.25, 342/357.28, 342/358, 342/383, 702/94, 702/150
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/12 executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/32 in circuits having distributed constants , e.g. having very long conductors or involving high frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02527 Detecting or resolving anomalies in the radio frequency fingerprints of the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0264 at least one of the systems being a non-radio wave positioning system

Abstract

A method for position determination, having a first step, in which a first sequence of positions is determined from radio signals of stationary transmitters, and a second sequence of positions being determined from other sensor data by dead reckoning. The first sequence of positions and the second sequence of positions are compared with one another in a second step. A computer program product for carrying out the method is also provided. A position determining device, in particular in a mobile terminal is also provided, having a receiver for radio signals of stationary transmitters, having position determining means for determining a first position of the receiver from radio signals of stationary transmitters, sensors at least for determining a direction and a distance in order to determine a second position by dead reckoning, and a memory for storing a sequence of first positions and a sequence of second positions. The first position determining device has a processing unit for comparing the sequence of first positions and the sequence of second positions.

Claims

1. A method for position determination, comprising:

obtaining, by processing circuitry and via a receiver, electronic radio signals from stationary transmitters;

obtaining, by the processing circuitry and via an input interface, sensor data from at least one sensor;

determining, by the processing circuitry, a first sequence of positions by processing the electronic radio signals from the stationary transmitters;

determining, by the processing circuitry, a second sequence of positions by dead reckoning processing of the sensor data;

comparing, by the processing circuitry, the determined first sequence of positions to the determined second sequence of positions;

ascertaining position information, by the processing circuitry and based on the comparison, wherein the position information is a resulting sequence of positions that represents a deviation of the first and second sequences of positions from each other; and

optimizing the first sequence of positions by;

differentiating the determined first sequence of positions; and

weighting the differentiated determined positions based on the resulting sequence of positions to correct the deviation.

2. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the first sequence of positions is determined from stored information about transmitters assigned to possible locations.

3. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the first sequence of positions is determined based on at least one of stored positions and signal strengths of transmitters.

4. The method for position determination as recited in claim 3, further comprising storing for at least one position of the first sequence of positions information about at least one of the stationary transmitters, the determined positions, and signal strength of at least one transmitter.

5. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the method is carried out several times in succession.

6. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second sequences of positions is supplemented by adding new positions to a new at least one of first and second sequences of positions.

7. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining an accuracy of individual determined ones of the positions of at least one of the first sequence and the second sequence prior to the determining of the at least one of the first sequence and the second sequence.

13. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the comparison is performed using a least squares estimate.

14. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the first sequence of positions and the second sequence of positions each includes a plurality of indexed data, the data for each index having at least two coordinates and a timestamp.

15. The method for position determination as recited in claim 1, wherein the correction is only performed when the comparison indicates that the deviation is a non-zero value for data from corresponding index values.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for position determination, the computer program, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining, via a receiver, electronic radio signals from stationary transmitters;

obtaining, via an input interface, sensor data from at least one sensor;

determining a first sequence of positions by processing the electronic radio signals from the stationary transmitters, and a second sequence of positions by dead reckoning processing of the sensor data;

comparing the determined first sequence of positions to the determined second sequence of positions;

based on the comparison, ascertaining position information, wherein the position information is a resulting sequence of positions that represents a deviation of the first and second sequences of positions from each other; and

optimizing the first sequence of positions by;

differentiating the determined first sequence of positions; and

weighting the differentiated determined positions based on the resulting sequence of positions to correct the deviation.

9. A position determining device in a mobile terminal, comprising:

a receiver for radio signals of stationary transmitters;

a position determining element to determine a sequence of first positions of the receiver from radio signals of stationary transmitters;

sensors at least to ascertain a direction and a distance for determination of a sequence of second positions by dead reckoning;

a memory to store the sequences of first positions and second positions; and

a processing unit to;

compare the determined sequence of first positions to the determined sequence of second positions;

ascertain position information from the comparison, wherein the position information is a resulting sequence of positions that represents a deviation of the sequence of first positions and the sequence of second positions from each other; and

optimize the sequence of first positions by;

differentiating the determined sequence of first positions; and

weighting the differentiated determined positions based on the resulting sequence of positions to correct the deviation.

10. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

a database to store information about transmitters assigned to possible locations.

11. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

a database to store at least one of positions and signal strengths of transmitters.

12. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, wherein the sensors include at least one of:

a yaw rate sensor, an electronic compass, an acceleration sensor, a step counter, and a pressure sensor.

16. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, wherein the sensors include at least a first sensor and a second sensor, wherein the first sensor determines the distance and the second sensor determines the direction of the distance.

17. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a database in which positions of the stationary transmitters are stored, wherein the sequence of first positions is determined based on the stored positions.

18. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a database in which signal strengths of the stationary transmitters are stored, wherein the sequence of first positions is determined based on the stored signal strengths.

19. The position determining device as recited in claim 9, further comprising a database in which positions and signal strengths of the stationary transmitters are stored, wherein the sequence of first positions is determined based on the stored positions and signal strengths.