SYSTEM FOR POWER FACILITY NAVIGATION

• US 20100114475A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea Electric Power Corporation (Government of South Korea)
• Original Assignee: Korea Electric Power Corporation (Government of South Korea)
• Inventors: KIM, Young Il, SONG, Jae Ju, SHIN, Jin Ho, LEE, Bong Jae
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,203 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3605 Destination input or retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem

Abstract

A system for power facility navigation is disclosed. For rapid dispatch in the field service including power failure recovery and maintenance, the destination location can be set using various items such as pole numbers, computerization codes, customer names, trade names, equipment numbers and GIS coordinates. Destination location setting and path finding can be performed in order of priorities assigned to these items and in consideration of characteristics of field service activities. Location coordinates are received through a GPS receiver, coordinate conversion is performed according to a facility GIS coordinate system, and map matching is processed when GPS coordinates do not match facility GIS coordinates. The road network database is composed of linear array structures and the structure of a link is configured to include information regarding all other links connected to the start node and end node in a manner that link information and node attributes are integrated together.

Claims

1. A system for power facility navigation, comprising:

a power facility navigation processor finding a destination location, and searching for a path;

a mobile GIS engine connected to the power facility navigation processor, and performing data processing;

a spatial database connected to the mobile GIS engine, and storing basic maps and facility maps;

a non-spatial database connected to the mobile GIS engine, and storing property information of facilities and sections; and

a road network database connected to the mobile GIS engine, and storing information on roads,

wherein the power facility navigation processor comprises a destination setting module finding the destination location, a path finding module searching the road network database for a path leading to the destination location, a GPS coordinate processing module receiving location coordinates through a GPS receiver and performing coordinate conversion when different GPS coordinate systems are used, and a map matching module performing GPS coordinate correction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the destination setting module sets the destination location using at least one of electric pole numbers and computerization codes of power facilities, customer names, trade names, addresses, numbers, equipment numbers and GIS coordinates.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the destination setting module sets the destination location using a selected one of electric pole numbers and computerization codes of power facilities, customer names, trade names, addresses, numbers, equipment numbers and GIS coordinates in order of preset priorities.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the path finding module retrieves previous coordinates, current coordinates and coordinates of the destination location, searches the road network database for the shortest link from the current coordinates and the shortest link to the destination coordinates, and finds the shortest path within a search range.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the path finding module derives a circle that is centered at the middle point of a straight line connecting the current coordinates and destination coordinates and has a radius 1.5 times the distance between the middle point and the current coordinates, and sets the search range to the inside of the circle.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the path finding module sets, when the current link at the current coordinates is within the search range and the current link is not equal to the destination link at the destination coordinates, a traveling direction, finds connected links leading to the traveling direction, computes, for each connected link, a new accumulated sum of weights by summing a weight of the connected link and currently accumulated sum of weights together, resets the current link to the connected link with the smallest accumulated sum of weights, and performs the next step of path finding.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein weights of the connected links are set differently according to whether the direction from the current link to the next link corresponds to going straight, turning to the right, turning to the left, or making a U-turn.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the path finding module terminates path finding when the current link is equal to the destination link.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the GPS coordinate processing module receives destination coordinates through the GPS receiver, and performs coordinate conversion according to a power facility GIS coordinate system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the map matching module shifts, when GPS coordinates does not match power facility GIS coordinates, the GPS coordinates within a preset range on the road network, compares the location indicated by the current GPS coordinates with the location computed based on the previous GPS coordinates, traveling speed and traveling direction, and discards, when the difference between the two locations is larger than a preset value, the current GPS coordinates as an outlier.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the map matching module analyzes, for a region with a GPS error larger than a preset value, GPS reception history data, computes the mean of GPS errors, derives a corresponding correction value, and applies the correction value to the coordinates of the region.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the road network database is composed of linear array structures and the structure of a link is configured to include information regarding all other links connected to the start node and end node in a manner that link information and node attributes are integrated together.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the road network database stores, for each link, at least one of link identifier, start node identifier, start node attribute, end node identifier, end node attribute, link length, link type, road class code, one-way indicator, lane count, road name, coordinate count, x-coordinates, y-coordinates, start link count, start link index, end link count, and end link index.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the power facility navigation processor displays at least one of status of a modem connecting to a digital TRS or CDMA radio network, status of a GPS receiver, setting of the map direction, setting of a path finding scheme, map scale level, setting of system environment, power facility destination, remaining time and distance, site information related to the current location, traversed path, current location of the car, traveling speed, direction indication, car-centered mode, map movement mode, facility selection mode, and facility attribute.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein when a new failure report is received in the car, the power facility navigation processor splits the navigation screen into left and right parts, and displays an alert message, a received work list, and details of the failure report.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the power facility navigation processor displays the received work list and a current work list of works in progress, and displays, when a failure case is selected from the received work list or current work list, the location associated with the failure case on the map.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the power facility navigation processor automatically sets, when a failure case is moved from the received work list to the current work list, the destination location to the corresponding failure location, and starts path finding.