Method and system for position capture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11092687-B2
Application number	US-201716332760-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2017
Priority date	Sep 12, 2016
Publication date	Aug 17, 2021
Grant date	Aug 17, 2021

Abstract

In a method and system for position capture of a vehicle along a driving route, situated on a concrete floor having a reinforcement: the vehicle carries out a reference drive along the driving route, the vehicle records measuring points along the driving route, and each measuring point allocates a signal from the reinforcement to a position on the driving route; a reference profile of the driving route is determined based on the measuring points ascertained during the reference drive; the vehicle drives along the driving route and records further measuring points; a profile segment is determined from the further measuring points; the profile segment is uniquely allocated to a segment of the reference profile, e.g., using a correlation method; a position on the driving route is uniquely allocated to the vehicle with the aid of the profile segment allocated to the reference profile.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for position capture of a vehicle along a driving route located on a concrete floor having a reinforcement, comprising, in order:
performing, by the vehicle, a reference drive along the driving route and recording, by the vehicle, measuring points along the driving route, each measuring point allocating a signal from the reinforcement to a position on the driving route;
determining a reference profile of the driving route based on the measuring points determined during the reference drive;
driving the vehicle along the driving route during a further drive and recording, by the vehicle, further measuring points during the further drive;
determining a profile segment from the further measuring points;
uniquely allocating the profile segment to a segment of the reference profile; and
uniquely allocating a position on the driving route to the vehicle based on the profile segment allocated to the reference profile.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reference profile is determined by interpolation.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the profile segment is determined by interpolation.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the profile segment is uniquely allocated to a segment of the reference profile using a correlation method.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the uniquely allocating the profile to the segment of the reference profile includes determining a maximum of a correlation integral related to a correlation between the profile segment and the segment of the reference profile.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the uniquely allocating the position includes allocating a position range of the reference profile to the profile segment, determining a position of the vehicle relative to the profile segment, and determining the position of the vehicle on the driving route from the position range and the position of the vehicle relative to the profile segment.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising determining a depth, a density, and/or a thickness of the reinforcement to determine a signal from the reinforcement based on a radar measurement and/or an inductive sensor.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reference profile uniquely allocates a value of a signal from the reinforcement to each position on the driving route.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a first measurement, in which linearly polarized light of a stationary transmit module passes through a liquid crystal that is controlled such that a polarization of the light is rotated by a first angle, the light at least partially passing through a second polarization filter of the vehicle, and determining a first intensity of the light;
a second measurement, in which linearly polarized light of the stationary transmit module passes through the liquid crystal that is controlled such that the polarization of the light is rotated by a second angle, the light at least partially passing through the second polarization filter, and determining a second intensity of the light; and
determining, based on the first and second intensities, determine an orientation of the vehicle relative to an extension direction of the driving route;
wherein the first angle and the second angle are unequal.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the first angle and the second angle differ by 90° in absolute amount and/or differ by a value of between 80° and 100° in absolute amount.

11. A system, comprising:
a concrete floor having a reinforcement;
a vehicle adapted to travel on the concrete floor along a driving route on the concrete floor, the vehicle including a sensor adapted to measure a signal from the reinforcement and an evaluation device;
wherein the system is adapted to perform the method recited in claim 1 .

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the sensor is arranged on a vehicle floor of the vehicle, is connected to the evaluation device, and/or is electrically connected to the evaluation device.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the sensor includes a radar sensor and/or an inductive sensor adapted to determine a thickness, a density, and/or a depth of the reinforcement in the concrete floor.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the vehicle includes a vehicle control connected to the evaluation device.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the vehicle is arranged as a driverless transport vehicle.

16. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising stationary transmit modules arranged along the driving route, the vehicle including a receive module, each transmit module including a light source and a first polarization filter arranged as a linear polarization filter so that linearly polarized light is emitted by the transmit module, the receive module including a light sensor, a liquid crystal, a control device for the liquid crystal, and a second polarization filter arranged as a linear polarization filter and located between the light sensor and the liquid crystal, the control device adapted to control the liquid crystal so that a polarization of the linearly polarized light that passes through the liquid crystal is rotated by a first angle or by a second angle, the first angle and the second angle being unequal, the light sensor adapted to detect light from the light source, which has passed through the first polarization filter, then through the liquid crystal and then through the second polarization filter.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the stationary transmit modules are arranged above the vehicle, the receive module is arranged on a top side of the vehicle, the light source includes a light emitting diode, the first angle is 0°, and the second angle is 90°.

18. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the light source is adapted to generate intensity-modulated light and/or the light includes visible and/or infrared light.

19. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the light source is adapted to generate intensity-modulate light with a frequency between 100 kHz and 10 MHz.

20. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the receive module includes a receiver connected to the evaluation device and adapted to measure a signal from the light sensor, the evaluation device adapted to determine an orientation of the vehicle relative to an extension direction of the driving route based on two measured values of the light sensor.

21. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the vehicle control is adapted to control the vehicle based on an orientation of the vehicle determined by the evaluation device.

22. The system according to claim 20 , wherein the signal includes a current.

23. The system according to claim 16 , wherein each stationary transmit module includes identity information modulatable onto the light of the respective stationary transmit module, a position range along the driving route uniquely allocatable to each stationary transmit module with the aid of the identity information.

24. The system according to claim 23 , further comprising a memory unit adapted to store respective position ranges, allocated to the respective identity information, the evaluation device adapted to read out the respective position ranges, allocated to the respective identity information, stored in the memory unit.

25. The system according to claim 16 , wherein each stationary

Assignees

• Sew Eurodrive Gmbh & Co

Inventors

• Schmidt Josef
• Böckle Jürgen
• Hua Zhidong
• SCHäFER THOMAS
• Wanjek Andreas

Classifications

• G01S13/931 Primary

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S13/86

  Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder · CPC title

• G01S13/89

  for mapping or imaging · CPC title

• G05D2201/0213

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05D1/0231

  using optical position detecting means (position-fixing by using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. optical position detecting means G01S5/16) · CPC title