Method and Apparatus for Determining Direction of the Beginning of Vehicle Movement

• US 20120323491A1
• Filed: 10/26/2010
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Topcon Positioning Systems Incorporated (Topcon Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Topcon Positioning Systems Incorporated (Topcon Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhdanov, Alexey V., Zintsov, Eugene I.
• Granted Patent: US 9,534,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/489
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/08 involving use of the magnetic field of the earth
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/056 with provision for distinguishing direction of travel

Abstract

A method of movement mode determination comprising measurement of vehicle'"'"'s position and orientation and calculation of movement parameters, a compass on the vehicle, is azimuthally oriented along the prevailing and is mostly used movement direction (“forward” direction), a movement vector measurement unit, is used for measuring the azimuth of movement vector. A calculation unit being used for measuring an angle between vehicle movement vector azimuth measured by the movement vector measurement unit and vehicle azimuth measured by the compass fixed on the vehicle; movement is regarded as ‘backward” if the calculated angle is greater than 90 degrees, and “forward” if the calculated angle is smaller than 90 degrees. Also, an apparatus for movement direction determination includes a compass and a computation unit and further comprises a movement vector measurement unit for determining vehicle movement azimuth and connected through a signal connection to the computation unit.

Claims

1. A method of determining movement direction and orientation of a vehicle, comprising:

mounting a compass onto a vehicle which is azimuthally oriented in a prevailing movement direction (“

forward”

direction),

measuring a vector azimuth of vehicle movement vector with a movement vector measurement unit;

measuring a compass azimuth with a compass;

calculating an angle between the vector azimuth and the compass azimuth,

determining the movement direction as “

backward”

if the calculated angle between the azimuths is greater than 90 degrees, and as “

forward”

if the angle is smaller than 90 degrees.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the movement vector measurement unit is a global navigation device that is mounted onto the vehicle, and movement vector is determined by measuring two global coordinate sets at a predefined interval, and calculating movement vector azimuth in a local coordinate system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the movement vector measurement is a range finder measuring a distance to a marker and an angle meter measuring angular position of the marker, and

wherein both the range finder and the angle meter are located outside the vehicle, are made operational by assigning a marker at the vehicle further used for measurements.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the range finder and the vehicle are mutually located such that the marker is accessible for measurements.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein two sets of ranges to the marker and angular offset of the marker are determined in the time interval,

wherein the sets are used to calculate the vector azimuth.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the marker is assigned by fixing a marker onto the vehicle, the marker being used for making the range and angle measurements and for focusing a measurement unit.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the movement vector measurement unit is a global navigation device that is mounted onto the vehicle, and movement vector is determined by measuring two global coordinate sets at a predefined interval, and calculating movement vector azimuth in a local coordinate system.

8. An apparatus of movement mode determination comprising;

a compass adapted to provide a compass azimuth signal that represents a movement direction of a vehicle;

a movement vector computation unit adapted to calculate a vector azimuth that also represents a movement direction of a vehicle; and

a computation unit connected to the compass and to the movement vector computation unit,

wherein the computation unit calculates an angle between the vector azimuth and the compass azimuth, and determines the vehicle movement direction as “

backward”

if the calculated angle between the azimuths is greater than 90 degrees, and as “

forward”

if the angle is smaller than 90 degrees.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the movement vector measurement is a range finder measuring a distance to a marker and an angle meter measuring angular position of the marker, and

wherein both the range finder and the angle meter are located outside the vehicle, are made operational by assigning a marker at the vehicle further used for measurements.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the range finder and the vehicle are mutually located such that the marker is accessible for measurements.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein an electronic magnetic sensor is used as a compass.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the compass is a flux gate rotating solenoid compass.