Locating system having a hand-held locating unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10416347-B2
Application number	US-201515320793-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 22, 2015
Priority date	Jun 25, 2014
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a locating system, comprising at least one hand-held locating sensor, which is provided for capturing locating data related to objects to be located that are hidden under an examination surface, a position sensor, which is provided for capturing position data, which can be associated with the locating data, and an evaluating unit, which is provided for determining at least two-dimensional map information from the locating data and the position data and providing said at least two-dimensional map information. According to the disclosure, the locating system comprises at least one data source, which is provided for providing data for the purpose of a modification of the at least two-dimensional map information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A locating system comprising:
at least one hand-held locating sensor configured to detect locating data concerning objects concealed below an examination surface, the at least one hand-held locating sensor including a position sensor configured to detect position data assignable to the locating data;
at least one display unit; and
an evaluation unit operably connected to the at least one hand-held locating sensor and to the at least one display unit, the evaluation unit configured to:
determine at least two-dimensional map information based on the locating data and the position data; and
operate the at least one display unit to display at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information such that at least one of (i) the at least one segment of the map at least two-dimensional information is centered in relation to a position of the at least one hand-held locating sensor, (ii) the at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information is scaled depending on the position data, and (iii) the at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information is scaled depending on a movement speed of the at least one hand-held locating sensor.

2. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one data source configured to provide additional data,
wherein the evaluation unit is configured to modify the at least two-dimensional map information based on the additional data from the data source.

3. The locating system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the at least one data source has a buffer memory configured to store at least the locating data.

4. The locating system at least as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to at least one of update and refine an area of the at least two-dimensional map information in a case of a renewed locating of the objects which are assigned to the area of the at least two-dimensional map information.

5. The locating system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the at least one data source is embodied as at least one of (i) a further locating sensor, (ii) a further position sensor, (iii) a rotation sensor configured to detect a rotation of the at least one hand-held locating sensor, (iv) an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration information of the at least one hand-held locating sensor, (v) an external application, and (vi) a camera configured to capture an image of the examination surface in at least one operating state.

6. The locating system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to exclude at least part of the locating data at least one of upon generation of the at least two-dimensional map information and upon modification of the at least two-dimensional map information.

7. The locating system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the at least one data source comprises at least one of (i) an image recognition module configured to provide structure data based on the locating data and (ii) a modeling module configured to provide model data based on the locating data.

8. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one hand-held locating sensor is configured to move freely along the examination surface.

9. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to determine the at least two-dimensional map information in real time.

10. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to determined the at least two-dimensional map information as three-dimensional map information.

11. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to at least one of interpolate and extrapolate the locating data.

12. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
in a first operating mode, the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information is scaled so as to encompass an entire detected range of the position data; and
in a second operating mode, the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information has a imaging scale such that the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information corresponds to a larger area of the examination surface compared to the first operating mode.

13. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one display unit is configured to determine the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information depending on the position data.

14. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
in response to the movement speed being in a first range of movement speeds, the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information has a first imaging scale; and
in response to the movement speed being in a second range of movement speeds, the displayed at least one segment of the at least two-dimensional map information has a second imaging scale,
wherein the first range of movement speeds is faster than the second range of movement speeds and the first imaging scale is smaller than the second imaging scale.

15. The locating system at least as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one display unit is configured to project the map at least two-dimensional information onto the examination surface.

16. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the position sensor comprises at least one camera.

17. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one marking which is spatially fixed relative to the at least one hand-held locating sensor, the position sensor being configured to detect the at least one marking.

18. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to output a warning signal depending on at least one of (i) the position data and (ii) a movement speed of the at least one hand-held locating sensor.

19. The locating system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation unit is configured to determine a locating direction of one of the objects relative to the at least one hand-held locating sensor.

20. A method for locating objects concealed below an examination surface, the method comprising:
assigning, with an evaluation unit, locating data from a locating sensor to position data from a position sensor of the locating sensor;
determining, with the evaluation unit, at least two-dimensional map information based on the locating data and the position data;
outputting, with the evaluation unit, the at least two-dimensional map information; and
modifying, with the evaluation unit, the at least two-dimensional map information based on additional data from a data source.

Assignees

• Bosch Gmbh Robert

Inventors

• Krapf Reiner
• Sgarz Heiko
• Brosi Jan-Michael
• Amann Christian
• Dammertz Ralph

Classifications

• G01V9/00 Primary

  Prospecting or detecting by methods not provided for in groups G01V1/00 - G01V8/00 · CPC title

• G01C15/02 Primary

  Means for marking measuring points · CPC title

• G01V3/175

  operating with electron or nuclear magnetic resonance · CPC title

• G01V3/17

  operating with electromagnetic waves {(operating with millimetre waves G01V8/005)} · CPC title

• G06F2101/00

  Indexing scheme relating to the type of digital function generated · CPC title