GNSS AND OPTICAL GUIDANCE AND MACHINE CONTROL

• US 20160334804A1
• Filed: 05/31/2016
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agjunction LLC (Kubota Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Agjunction LLC (Kubota Corporation)
• Inventors: Feller, Walter J., Webber, Mark R., Jones, Keith R., McClure, John A., Roberge, Andre C., Whitehead, Michael L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,880,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 69/007 Steering or guiding of agricultural vehicles, e.g. steering of the tractor to keep the plough in the furrow
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 69/008 automatic
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: E01C 19/004 Devices for guiding or controlling the machines along a predetermined path for graders or bulldozers E02F3/841; for other soil-shifting machines E02F9/2045
• CPC Class Codes: E01H 4/00 Working on surfaces of snow or ice in order to make them suitable for traffic or sporting purposes, e.g. by compacting snow production of artificial snow F25C3/04
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/123 Drives or control devices specially adapted therefor E02F9/125 and E02F9/128 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2029 Controlling the position of implements in function of its load, e.g. modifying the attitude of implements in accordance to vehicle speed control for hydraulic or pneumatic drives E02F9/2203, E02F9/2221 and E02F9/2253 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2045 Guiding machines along a predetermined path for graders E02F3/841; machines for construction of roads E01C19/004
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2054 Fleet management
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/264 Sensors and their calibration for indicating the position of the work tool
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1656 with passive imaging devices, e.g. cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 25/005 initial alignment, calibration or starting-up of inertial devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/04 providing carrier phase data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/24 Acquisition or tracking or demodulation of signals transmitted by the system synchronisation aspects of direct sequence spread spectrum modulation H04B1/7073
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/41 Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/44 Carrier phase ambiguity resolution; Floating ambiguity; LAMBDA [Least-squares AMBiguity Decorrelation Adjustment] method
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/53 Determining attitude
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/55 : Carrier phase ambiguity resolution; Floating ambiguity; LAMBDA [Least-squares AMBiguity Decorrelation Adjustment] method
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/027 : comprising intertial navigation means, e.g. azimuth detector inertial navigation G01C21/16; inertial navigation combined with non-inertial navigation instruments G01C21/165
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 : using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0278 : using satellite positioning signals, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0287 : involving a plurality of land vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00, particularly anticollision systems G08G1/16
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0891 : specially adapted for land vehicles

Abstract

A global navigation satellite sensor system (GNSS) and gyroscope control system for vehicle steering control comprising a GNSS receiver and antennas at a fixed spacing to determine a vehicle position, velocity and at least one of a heading angle, a pitch angle and a roll angle based on carrier phase position differences. The system also includes a control system configured to receive the vehicle position, heading, and at least one of roll and pitch, and configured to generate a steering command to a vehicle steering system. The system includes gyroscopes for determining system attitude change with respect to multiple axes for integrating with GNSS-derived positioning information to determine vehicle position, velocity, rate-of-turn, attitude and other operating characteristics. Relative orientations and attitudes between motive and working components can be determined using optical sensors and cameras. The system can also be used to guide multiple vehicles in relation to each other.

Claims

1. An automated steering control system to control a vehicle, or control an implement attached to the vehicle, for an agricultural operation, comprising;

a memory storing a desired track; and

one or more processors to;

send one or more steering control commands to a steering controller to steer the vehicle or implement along the desired track;

receive position, speed, and attitude data from one or more sensors indicating a response by the vehicle or implement to the one or more steering control commands to compute a deviation of one or more of a position, speed, and attitude from the desired track;

generate one or more corrective steering control commands based on the computed deviation; and

send the one or more corrective steering control commands to the steering controller to dynamically adjust operation of the vehicle or implement relative to the desired track.

2. The steering control system of claim 1, wherein the one or more corrective steering control commands cause the steering controller to dynamically adjust one or more of vehicle speed, position, heading, tilt, curvature of turn, or radius of turn.

3. The steering control system of claim 1 wherein the position, speed, and attitude data are based on signals received from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and an attitude sensor.

4. The steering control system of claim 1, the one or more processors further to:

measure a response time of the vehicle or implement to the one or more steering control commands; and

generate the one or more corrective steering control commands based, in part, on the measured response time.

5. The steering control system of claim 1, the one or more processors further to generate the corrective steering control commands to cause the vehicle or implement to approach the desired track at another position, heading, or attitude based on the computed deviation.

6. The steering control system of claim 5, the one or more processors further to calculate the other position, heading, or attitude based on the computed deviation.

7. The steering control system of claim 1, the one or more processors further to generate the one or more corrective steering control commands to direct the vehicle or implement toward the desired track to avoid crossing the desired track.

8. The steering control system of claim 7, the one or more processors further to calculate another position, speed, or attitude based on the computed deviation to direct the vehicle or implement toward the desired track to avoid crossing the desired track.

9. The steering control system of claim 1, the one or more processors further to:

measure a rate-of-turn for the vehicle or implement; and

generate the one or more corrective steering control commands based on the measured rate-of-turn.

10. The automatic steering system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of one or more global navigation satellite sensor system (GNSS) receivers, one or more gyroscopes, one or more accelerometers, one or more compasses, one or more magnetic sensors, one or more inclinometers, and one or more radar devices.

11. The automatic steering system of claim 10, wherein the one or more sensors are in a self-contained, unitary enclosure.

12. A controller for steering a vehicle comprising:

one or more processors to;

derive a desired position and a desired heading for the vehicle;

determine a measured position and a measured heading for the vehicle;

compute a position error based on a difference between the measured position and the desired position and a heading error based on a difference between the measured heading and the desired heading; and

generate one or more steering control commands based on the computed position error and the computed heading error and a selectable operating parameter.

13. The controller of claim 12, wherein the selectable operating parameter causes a proportionally steering adjustment by the one or more steering control commands, compensating for the computed position error and the computed heading error, relative to a desired track.

14. The controller of claim 12, wherein the selectable operating parameter is selected by an operator.

15. The controller of claim 12, wherein the selectable operating parameter is selected by the controller.

16. The controller of claim 12, wherein the selectable operating parameter comprises at least one of 3-D position, velocity, tilt, heading rate, rate of change of tilt angle, pitch, and radius of curvature of the vehicle.

17. The controller of claim 12, wherein the one or more steering control commands direct the vehicle toward the desired position and heading to avoid crossing a desired track.

18. The controller of claim 12, the one or more processors further to use a recursive adaptive algorithm to generate the one or more steering control commands based on a response of the vehicle to one or more other steering control commands.

19. The controller of claim 12, the one or more processors further to:

save a desired track for the vehicle;

generate a deviation of the measured position and heading relative to the desired track; and

determine the one or more steering control commands based on the deviation.

20. The controller of claim 12, wherein the measured position and heading are based on signals received from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and a gyroscope.

21. The controller of claim 12, the one or more processors further to send the one or more steering control commands to a steering controller to adjust operation of the vehicle or an implement operably coupled to the vehicle.

22. A steering controller for a vehicle, comprising:

a memory storing a recursive adaptive algorithm, the recursive adaptive algorithm characterizing a response by the vehicle to at least one steering command based on data from one or more sensors;

at least one processing device to;

use the recursive algorithm to predict a position, speed, and attitude of the vehicle;

determine one or more steering control commands based on the predicted position, speed and attitude of the vehicle; and

apply the one or more steering control commands to a steering controller to steer the vehicle.

23. The steering controller of claim 22, the processing device further to:

calculate the predicted position, speed, and attitude of the vehicle relative to a desired track;

determine a detected position, speed, and attitude of the vehicle;

determine a deviation of the detected position, speed, and attitude from the predicted position, speed, and attitude; and

calculate the steering control commands based on the deviation.

24. The steering controller of claim 23, wherein the detected position and attitude are based on signals from a global navigation satellite sensor system (GNSS) receiver and a gyroscope on the vehicle.

25. The steering controller of claim 22, wherein the steering controller is configured to attach to different vehicles or implements and determine the one or more steering control commands based on one of the different vehicles or implements to which the steering controller is attached.

26. The steering controller of claim 22, the processing device to determine the one or more steering control commands based on a selectable operating parameter including at least one of tilt, heading rate, rate of change of tilt angle, pitch, and radius of curvature of the vehicle.

27. The steering controller of claim 22, the processing device to:

measure a proportional rate of turn of the vehicle in response to the one or more steering control commands; and

generate one or more additional steering control commands based, at least in part, on the measured proportional rate of turn.

28. A method for steering a vehicle, comprising:

saving a desired track in memory;

sending at least one steering control command to a steering controller to steer the vehicle along the desired track;

identifying a position, heading, and rate-of-turn of the vehicle based on readings from a global navigation satellite sensor system (GNSS) receiver and a gyroscope;

computing a deviation of the vehicle relative to the desired track based on the position, heading, and rate-of-turn;

determining one or more other steering control commands based on the deviation; and

sending the one or more other steering control commands to the steering controller to steer the vehicle along the desired track.

29. The method of claim 28, including using the deviation and a recursive adaptive algorithm characterizing a response of the vehicle to determine the one or more other steering control commands.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the one or more other steering control commands cause the vehicle to approach the desired track at a calculated speed, distance, heading, and rate-of-turn.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

measuring a proportional rate of turn of the vehicle in response to the at least one steering control command; and

determining the one or more other steering control commands based on the measured proportional rate of turn.

32. A method for controlling a vehicle, or controlling an implement operably coupled to the vehicle, for an agricultural operation, comprising;

generating one or more steering control commands to steer the vehicle or implement along a desired track;

receiving position, speed, and attitude data from one or more sensors indicating a response by the vehicle or implement to the one or more steering control commands;

computing a deviation of one or more of a position, speed, and attitude from the desired track;

generating one or more corrective steering control commands based on the computed deviation; and

using the one or more corrective steering control commands to dynamically adjust operation of the vehicle or implement relative to the desired track.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising dynamically adjusting one or more of vehicle speed, position, heading, tilt, curvature of turn, or radius of turn of the vehicle or implement with the one or more corrective steering control commands.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the position, speed, and attitude data are based on signals received from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and an attitude sensor.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

measuring a response time of the vehicle or implement to the one or more steering control commands; and

generating the one or more corrective steering control commands based, in part, on the measured response time.

36. The method of claim 32, further comprising using the corrective steering control commands to cause the vehicle or implement to approach the desired track at another position, heading, or attitude based on the computed deviation.

37. A method for controlling an agricultural vehicle, comprising;

sending a steering control command to a steering control mechanism to steer the agricultural vehicle towards a desired path;

determining a track of the agricultural vehicle based, at least in part, on one or more real time kinematic signals;

calculating a deviation between the real-time kinematic determined track of the agricultural vehicle and the desired path;

calibrating another steering control command based on the deviation; and

sending the other steering control command to the steering control mechanism to steer the agricultural vehicle towards the desired path.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the real-time kinematic determined track includes at least one of a position, direction, acceleration, velocity, heading angle, pitch angle, roll angle, tilt, and radius of curvature of the agricultural vehicle.