Vehicle inclination detecting device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9348012-B2
Application number	US-201213980152-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2012
Priority date	Mar 17, 2011
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

In a vehicle inclination detecting device, a receiving unit includes a switching unit for alternately switching between a received signal from a first receiving antenna and a received signal from a second receiving antenna to alternately output the received signals to an orthogonal detector. The orthogonal detector carries out orthogonal detection on each of the two received signals from the switching unit and an oscillating signal from an oscillator by using an identical line.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle inclination detecting device comprising:
a transmitting unit disposed in a vehicle, for emitting a transmission signal which is acquired by rotating a phase of an oscillating signal having a predetermined frequency as a radio wave from a transmitting antenna;
a first switching unit for alternately switching between a first received signal which a first receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from a ground surface and a second received signal which a second receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from said ground surface to alternately output said first received signal and said second received signal;
a second switching unit for switching between said first received signal or said second received signal from said first switching unit and said transmission signal which said second switching unit acquires from said transmitting unit to alternately output said first received signal or said second received signal and said transmission signal;
an orthogonal detection unit for carrying out orthogonal detection on said first received signal from said second switching unit and said oscillating signal and carrying out orthogonal detection on said second received signal from said second switching unit and said oscillating signal to alternately get a first amplitude and a first phase and a second amplitude and a second phase, and for carrying out orthogonal detection on said transmission signal from said second switching unit and said oscillating signal to get a third amplitude and a third phase; and
an angle of inclination arithmetic unit for referring to phase rotation linearity characteristics of said orthogonal detection unit which are computed from said third amplitude and phase to compute an angle of inclination of said vehicle with respect to said ground surface on a basis of said first amplitude and phase and said second amplitude and phase.

2. The vehicle inclination detecting device according to claim 1 , wherein the transmitting unit carries out pulse modulation on the oscillating signal, and the angle of inclination arithmetic unit computes the angle of inclination by using both a value which said angle of inclination arithmetic unit acquires by separating a reflected radio wave reflected once from reflected radio waves each reflected two or more times and then sampling the first amplitude and phase in time sequence, and a value which said angle of inclination arithmetic unit acquires by separating said reflected radio wave reflected once from said reflected radio waves each reflected two or more times and then sampling the second amplitude and phase in time sequence.

3. The vehicle inclination detecting device according to claim 1 , wherein the oscillating signal has different frequencies in a time-division way, and the angle of inclination arithmetic unit computes the angle of inclination by using a linear approximation from phase differences based on said different frequencies.

4. The vehicle inclination detecting device according to claim 1 , wherein said vehicle inclination detecting device includes three or more receiving antennas, and computes the angle of inclination of the vehicle in a longitudinal direction and the angle of inclination of the vehicle in a lateral direction.

5. A vehicle inclination detecting device comprising:
a transmitting unit disposed in a vehicle, for emitting a transmission signal which is acquired by rotating a phase of an oscillating signal having a predetermined frequency as a radio wave from an transmitting antenna;
a first switching unit for switching between a first received signal which a first receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from a ground surface and said transmission signal which said first switching unit acquires from said transmitting unit to alternately output said first received signal and said transmission signal;
a second switching unit for switching between a second received signal which a second receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from said ground surface and said transmission signal which said second switching unit acquires from said transmitting unit to alternately output said second received signal and said transmission signal;
a first orthogonal detection unit for carrying out orthogonal detection on said first received signal from said first switching unit and said oscillating signal to get a first amplitude and a first phase, and carrying out orthogonal detection on said transmission signal from said first switching unit and said oscillating signal to get a third amplitude and a third phase;
a second orthogonal detection unit for carrying out orthogonal detection on said second received signal from said second switching unit and said oscillating signal to get a second amplitude and a second phase, and carrying out orthogonal detection on said transmission signal from said second switching unit and said oscillating signal to get a fourth amplitude and a fourth phase; and
an angle of inclination arithmetic unit for referring to both phase rotation linearity characteristics of said first orthogonal detection unit which are computed from said third amplitude and phase, and phase rotation linearity characteristics of said second orthogonal detection unit which are computed from said fourth amplitude and phase to compute an angle of inclination of said vehicle with respect to said ground surface on a basis of said first amplitude and phase and said second amplitude and phase.

6. A vehicle inclination detecting device comprising:
a transmitting unit disposed in a vehicle, for carrying out pulse modulation on an oscillating signal having a predetermined frequency to emit said oscillating signal as a radio wave from a transmitting antenna;
a switching unit for alternately switching between a first pulse received signal which a first receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from a ground surface and a second pulse received signal which a second receiving antenna acquires by receiving said radio wave reflected from said ground surface to alternately output said first pulse received signal and said second pulse received signal;
an orthogonal detection unit for carrying out orthogonal detection of said first pulse received signal or said second pulse received signal from said switching unit and said oscillating signal to alternately get a first amplitude and a first phase, and a second amplitude and a second phase; and
an angle of inclination arithmetic unit for computing an angle of inclination of said vehicle with respect to said ground surface on a basis of both a value which said angle of inclination arithmetic unit acquires by separating a reflected radio wave reflected once from reflected radio waves each reflected two or more times and then sampling said first amplitude and first phase in time sequence, and a value which said angle of inclination arithmetic unit acquires by separating said reflected radio wave reflected once from said reflected radio waves each reflected two or more times and then sampling said second amplitude and second phase in time sequence.

7. The vehicle inclination detecting device according to claim 6 , wherein in the sampling, by acquiring the first amplitude and the first phase and the second amplitude and the second phase while sliding a sample position of the first amplitude and the first phase and the second amplitude and the second phase, said first amplitude and said first phase and the second amplitude and the second phase are equivalently acquired in time sequence.

8. A vehicle inclination detecting device comprising:
a transmitting unit disposed in a vehicle, for carrying out pulse modulation on an o

Assignees

• Watanabe Masahiro
• Tsujita Wataru
• Inomata Kenji
• Ohsawa Takashi
• Shikai Masahiro
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Watanabe Masahiro
• Tsujita Wataru
• Inomata Kenji
• Ohsawa Takashi
• Shikai Masahiro

Classifications

• G01C9/00 Primary

  Measuring inclination, e.g. by clinometers, by levels · CPC title

• G01S15/872

  Combination of several systems for attitude determination (using inertial means G01C9/00, control of attitude G05D1/49) · CPC title

• G01S15/102

  using transmission of pulses having some particular characteristics · CPC title

• G01S5/0273 Primary

  using multipath or indirect path propagation signals in position determination · CPC title