KR20110004494A - The apparatus of positioning of goods and the method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A position measuring device and a method thereof are provided to accurately measure the location of a part inside. CONSTITUTION: A moving device(1) is attached to a part and includes an RF IC and a pressure sensor. The RF IC measures the horizontal coordinate of the part. The pressure sensor measures the vertical coordinate of the part. The moving device calculates the positioning information of the part and transmits a wireless signal. A fixed device(2) is fixed to a restricted space and transmits a wireless signal every cycle. A coordinator(3) wirelessly receives the positioning information of the part.

Description

Positioning device and positioning method of goods

The present invention relates to a positioning device and a positioning method using the three-dimensional position information of the article.

Background Art [0002] Conventional monitoring of articles such as containers or loads has mainly used a method of manually checking information on the loading position and status of articles via an operator disposed outside.

Conventional three-dimensional positioning methods include GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellite and three-dimensional positioning method using altimeter, three-dimensional positioning method using image image (image processing), and three-dimensional positioning method using GPS and laser. have.

In the prior art, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-70042 (Three-dimensional ultra-precision real-time tracking and positioning system and method) generates a GPS coordinate of an object or movement of an object to determine their position or track their behavior. This has been proposed.

However, with regard to the three-dimensional positioning method using GPS and altimeter, this method has a problem that the GPS error has a large error range of about 10m in the horizontal or vertical direction and a speed error of about 3cm per second. There is a problem in that monitoring is not possible in a cycle of 1 second or less because the GPS data is input in 1 second unit, and it has a problem of causing a price increase because a separate altimeter must be installed.

In addition, there is a three-dimensional positioning method using a video image (image processing), but this method is affected by the external environment such as snow, rain, fog, and a lot of resources must be allocated to the image processing processor to process multiple data at the same time. There is a limit to this, there is a problem that is difficult to manage, such as always need to clean the lens.

In addition, there is a three-dimensional positioning method using GPS and laser, but this method also has a problem that the GPS error has a large error of about 10m, and it is impossible to monitor in a period of 1 second or less because the GPS data is input in 1 second unit. In addition, since a separate laser rangefinder must be installed, it has a problem of causing a price increase. Due to the characteristics of the laser, an error occurs in bad weather such as snow, rain, and fog, and thus data cannot be trusted.

Therefore, for accurate positioning of articles, it is required to develop a system that processes location data in real time without being disturbed by various external environments.

In addition, in the case of a large number of articles, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine the exact position of the article located inside.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, an object of the present invention to provide a positioning device and a positioning method that enables more accurate positioning at a lower cost. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a positioning device and a positioning method for enabling accurate positioning even in the case of an article located therein.

The positioning device according to the present invention is a positioning device for measuring a position of an article, each of which is attached to at least one or more of the articles and measures an RF IC for measuring a horizontal coordinate of the article and a vertical coordinate of the article. A mobile device (1) comprising a pressure sensor for transmitting the wireless signal and data by calculating positioning information of the article; A fixed device (2) fixed in a confined space to transmit radio signals and data at regular intervals; A coordinator (3) for wirelessly receiving the positioning information of the article transmitted from the mobile device (1); Characterized in that comprises a.

At this time, the moving device 1 preferably further comprises an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor. At this time, the mobile device 1 operates in a sleep mode that stops signal and data transmission when there is no change in the acceleration or speed value measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor, and the acceleration sensor or When it is detected that a change in the acceleration or speed value measured by the speed sensor is generated, the signal and data are transmitted.

In addition, the fixing device 2 is characterized in that at least three or more are provided to use a triangulation method when calculating the positioning information in the mobile device (1). In addition, the fixing device 2 is characterized in that using a beacon (beacon) signal.

In addition, the positioning device includes a monitoring unit (4) for checking or processing the obtained positioning information data; And further comprising: In addition, the positioning device includes a server (5) for storing the obtained positioning information data or data processed by the monitoring unit 4 as a database; And further comprising:

Further, the positioning method of the present invention, in the positioning method for measuring the position of the article using the positioning device as described above, from the air pressure information measured by the pressure sensor provided in the moving device 1 of the article A vertical coordinate calculation step of obtaining a vertical coordinate; A moving distance calculating step of obtaining a distance between the moving device (1) and the fixed device (2) from the signal round trip time between the moving device (1) and the fixed device (2); A horizontal coordinate calculating step of obtaining a horizontal coordinate of the moving device (1) from the vertical coordinate value calculated in the vertical coordinate calculating step and the distance value calculated in the moving distance calculating step; It comprises a to calculate a three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device (1).

In this case, the positioning method includes a three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device 1 calculated using a moving distance obtained through the vertical coordinate calculation step-the movement distance calculation step-the horizontal coordinate calculation step sequentially. And correcting the three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device 1 by comparing it with the three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device 1 calculated using the moving distance obtained using the acceleration or the speed of the mobile device 1. A correction step made; It is preferred to further comprise a.

The present invention can obtain less error at a lower cost than the conventional three-dimensional positioning method. Acceleration sensor or speed sensor is used to compensate for this, because it is influenced by external environment due to RF characteristics, and the pressure sensor is used for vertical coordinates, which have a relatively large error compared to horizontal coordinates. have.

Hereinafter, the positioning device and the positioning method of the article according to the present invention having the configuration as described above will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional positioning device and positioning method using an RF IC, a pressure sensor and an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor for positioning the article using the three-dimensional position information, the horizontal coordinate (x, y) of the article is an RF IC The vertical coordinate z is obtained using a pressure sensor, and the position data is corrected using a three-axis acceleration sensor or a speed sensor. This data is transmitted to the server and the monitoring unit 4 is utilized. That is, the present invention is a positioning device and a positioning method for obtaining an accurate positioning of an article by a combination of an RF IC, a pressure sensor, and an acceleration sensor (or speed sensor). More specifically, the present invention is a three-axis position by the RF IC and the pressure sensor. The information is obtained and corrected by an acceleration sensor (or speed sensor). Of course, three-dimensional positioning of an article may be obtained using only an RF IC (horizontal coordinate acquisition) and a pressure sensor (vertical coordinate acquisition) without an acceleration sensor or speed sensor, but using a value measured by an acceleration sensor or a velocity sensor. By performing the correction, more accurate positioning information can be obtained. This will be described in more detail below.

1 shows the basic configuration of the positioning device of the present invention. As shown in Figure 1, the positioning device of the present invention is a mobile device (1) for indicating the position of the built-in pressure sensor and acceleration sensor or speed sensor (Static Device, which is a reference of the coordinates) 2) and a coordinator 3 for receiving the location information from the mobile device 1 and transmitting the location information back to a PC or a server. Here, as shown in Figure 1, so that the user can easily check and store the acquired positioning information, the monitoring unit for enabling to check the obtained positioning information and the database to store it It may be made further comprising a server (5). The detailed description of each part is as follows.

The mobile device 1 is a device attached to an article, a built-in RF IC, a pressure sensor, and may further include an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor. The mobile device 1 transmits the positional information of the article obtained from the RF IC, the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor and the pressure sensor to the coordinator 3.

The fixing device 2 is fixed in a limited space and transmits a beacon signal or wireless data at regular intervals.

The coordinator (3) wirelessly receives the location information of the article, and transmits the received information back to the monitoring unit (4) through a communication network such as Ethernet or WLAN.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic system diagram of an embodiment of the mobile device 1, the fastening device 2 and the coordinator 3, and FIG. 4 shows the mobile device 1 and the fastening device 2. And operation steps of one embodiment of the work performed in each of the coordinator 3 are shown in a flowchart. In addition, FIG. 5 schematically shows the specific shape of one embodiment of the mobile device 1 and the fastening device 2. Hereinafter, the positioning device and the positioning method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2. The embodiment of the device or method of FIGS. 3 to 5 is only one embodiment, and the positioning device and the present invention will be described below. It will be appreciated that the positioning method is not limited to the case configured as in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 to 5.

2 is a view for explaining the positioning principle of the present invention. The principle of the positioning device and the positioning method of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 2.

The fixing device 2 is fixed in a limited space and transmits and receives a signal in a limited space at regular intervals, and this space becomes a positioning region. The mobile device 1 attached to the article emits a radio signal in the positioning area, and by receiving the signal at the fixing device 2, it is possible to obtain positioning information of the article. The signal transmitted from the mobile device 1 to the fixed device 2 will be described in more detail later. At this time, of course, it is also possible to continuously transmit a signal from the mobile device 1, but in this case, since the waste of energy in the mobile device 1 is too severe, if the mobile device 1 moves It is desirable to transmit a signal. That is, at this time, an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor is provided in the mobile device 1, so that when the article to which the mobile device 1 is attached moves, the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor value is recognized and the device is in the sleep mode. By activating the mobile device 1, the waste of energy in the mobile device 1 can be greatly reduced.

Once the article to which the mobile device 1 is attached enters into the positioning region, the mobile device 1 emits a radio signal, and after each of the fixing devices 2 receives the radio signal, the mobile device moves again. The transmission to the device (1). At this time, in the mobile device 1, the vertical coordinate z of the mobile device 1 itself is obtained using the pressure sensor included in the mobile device 1, and the vertical coordinate value and the fixed device are obtained. The horizontal coordinates (x, y) of the mobile device 1 itself are obtained using the time value at which the response of the signal sent to (2) returns to the mobile device 1 again.

The positioning method using the positioning device of the present invention is performed as follows. First, a vertical coordinate calculation step of obtaining a vertical coordinate of the article from the air pressure information measured by the pressure sensor provided in the moving device 1; is performed, between the moving device 1 and the fixed device 2 A movement distance calculation step of obtaining a distance between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 from a signal round trip time; and the vertical coordinate value calculated in the vertical coordinate calculation step and the distance calculated in the distance calculation step A horizontal coordinate calculation step of obtaining a horizontal coordinate of the mobile device 1 from a value; and finally, positioning information of the mobile device 1, that is, the article to which the mobile device 1 is attached, is obtained. will be.

First, the method of calculating the vertical coordinate operation, that is, the height of the article, that is, the vertical coordinate z will be described in more detail.

If the air pressure information received from the pressure sensor is P (Pa),

Where h is the vertical coordinate (z), T ₀ is the standard atmospheric temperature, T _gradient is the temperature change per altitude, P ₀ is the standard atmospheric pressure, R is the gas constant, and g is the gravitational acceleration. The above equation is calculated based on the 1976 US Standard Atmosphere Elevation Standard data and the atmospheric conversion equation.

Is defined as:

Using the method described above, the vertical coordinate z value, i.e., the h value of the mobile device 1 is obtained.

Next, the moving distance calculating step and the horizontal coordinate calculating step will be described in more detail. First of all, the distance between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 is measured by measuring the time when a radio signal is transmitted from the mobile device 1 to the fixed device 2 and then returned again. The distance between the plurality of fixing devices 2 is measured (moving distance calculation step), and the horizontal coordinates (x, y) are obtained by triangulation method (horizontal coordinate calculation step).

In the movement distance calculation step, the distance D between the fixed device 2 and the mobile device 1 is determined using a time of arrival (TOA) method using a round trip time (RTT). Calculate. Here, the arrival time method using the round trip time means that a signal is transmitted between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 from the time taken to reciprocate between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2. This is how you get the time it takes.

That is, it is assumed that the time t _prop for a signal to fly from the mobile device 1 to the fixed device 2 or from the fixed device 2 to the mobile device 1 is the same, and the fixed device ( When the time taken to receive a signal from 2) and respond to the mobile device 1 is t _SD , the time t _RTT required to reciprocate between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 is:

Obtained as

_{Summarizing the} above expression for t _prop ,

Becomes

Thus, the distance D between the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 is such that a signal flows from the mobile device 1 to the fixed device 2 or from the fixed device 2 to the mobile device 1. It is calculated by multiplying the propagation speed (about 299790.2km / s) by the time taken to t _prop . In other words,

When three fixing devices 2 are provided, the three-dimensional coordinates of the moving device 1 are referred to as (x, y, z), and the three-dimensional coordinates of each of the fixing devices 2 are represented by (x ₁ , y ₁ , z ₁ ), (x ₂ , y ₂ , z ₂ ), (x ₃ , y ₃ , z ₃ ), and the distance between the mobile device 1 and each of the fixed devices 2 Denote D ₁ , D ₂ , and D ₃ (see FIG. 2).

At this time, the vertical coordinate (z) value (H ') of the mobile device 1 can be calculated from the air pressure information measured by the pressure sensor provided in the mobile device, as described above, each of the fixed device ( The vertical coordinate z value H of 2) is a known value. (FIG. 2 shows the case where the vertical coordinate values H of each of the fixing devices 2 are all the same.) Accordingly, the horizontal coordinate values (x, y) of the mobile device 1 are the mobile device. (1) and the horizontal distances D ' ₁ , D' ₂ , D ' ₃ between each fixing device 2 can be calculated from the following equation.

In Equation 6, (x ₁ , y ₁ ), (x ₂ , y ₂ ), (x ₃ , y ₃ ) are all known values, and D ₁ , D ₂ , and D ₃ are the movement distance calculation steps. Is a value obtained in advance using Equation 5, and since H and H 'values are also known values as described above, the horizontal coordinates (x, y) of the mobile device 1 are summarized by summarizing Equation 6 above. You can get the value.

At this time, if the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2 is further provided with an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor, the above steps using the acceleration or speed value collected from the three-dimensional acceleration sensor or speed sensor It is more preferable to correct the three-dimensional coordinate values (x, y, z) of the mobile device 1 obtained through. More detailed description is as follows. The distance traveled by the mobile device 1 may be obtained in the same manner as described above (that is, by a triangulation method using signal transmission / reception times of the mobile device 1 and the fixed device 2), but the acceleration sensor or speed If a sensor is used, the distance measured by the mobile device 1 can be obtained independently using the value measured by the sensor. Using the three-dimensional coordinate values (x, y, z) of the moving device 1 calculated using the moving distance obtained by the triangulation method, and the moving distance obtained using the value measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor By comparing the three-dimensional coordinate values (x, y, z) of the mobile device 1 calculated by each other, if the two displacements within a certain allowable value is considered to be reliable data, otherwise measuring again The reliability of the measured data can be improved. The corrected data is initialized and ready for collection of the next correction signal.

All data can be collected two or more times to ensure reliability. Also, the fixed device 2 is not only provided with three but more than that, so that various data can be collected and compared, thereby improving the reliability of the measured data. You can.

The three-dimensional position information thus obtained is transmitted to the coordinator 3 by wireless communication by the mobile device 1, and the coordinator 3 is again connected to a server 5 through a communication network such as a wireless LAN or Ethernet. ) Or the monitoring unit 4 can be used for various purposes by the user. The data stored in the server 5 is stored in a database, and the stored data is utilized by the monitoring unit 4 again.

The acceleration sensor and speed sensor may also be used in the following manner. That is, the device operates in a sleep mode that stops signal and data transmission when there is no change in the acceleration sensor or the speed value measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor, and the acceleration measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor. Alternatively, when it is detected that a change in the speed value is generated, transmission of signals and data is performed. Therefore, when there is no movement, the mobile device 1 operates in the sleep mode, thereby reducing unnecessary battery consumption.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the scope of application of the present invention is not limited to those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications can be made.

1 is an operation of the positioning device of the present invention.

2 is a positioning principle of the present invention.

3 is a configuration example of each part of the positioning device of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a step embodiment of each part of the positioning method of the present invention.

5 is an embodiment of a mobile device and a stationary device of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

1: shifting device

2: fixture

3: coordinator

4: monitoring unit

5: server

Claims (9)

A positioning device for measuring the position of an article, Each of which is attached to at least one or more of the articles, includes an RF IC for measuring the horizontal coordinates of the article and a pressure sensor for measuring the vertical coordinates of the article, and calculates location information of the article to provide a wireless signal and A mobile device 1 for transmitting data; A fixed device (2) fixed in a confined space to transmit radio signals and data at regular intervals; A coordinator (3) for wirelessly receiving the positioning information of the article transmitted from the mobile device (1); Positioning device comprising a. The device of claim 1, wherein the moving device 1 Positioning device further comprises an acceleration sensor or a speed sensor. The method of claim 2, wherein the moving device (1) Operates in a sleep mode to stop signal and data transmission when there is no change in the acceleration or speed value measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor, Positioning device characterized in that for transmitting the signal and data when it is detected that the change in the acceleration or speed value measured by the acceleration sensor or the speed sensor occurs. The device of claim 1, wherein the fixing device (2) Positioning device, characterized in that at least three or more are provided to use a triangulation method when calculating the positioning information in the mobile device (1). The device of claim 1, wherein the fixing device (2) A positioning device, characterized by using a beacon signal. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning device A monitoring unit 4 for checking or processing the obtained positioning information data; Positioning device, characterized in that further comprises. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning device A server 5 for storing the obtained positioning information data or the data processed by the monitoring unit 4 as a database; Positioning device, characterized in that further comprises. In the positioning method for measuring the position of the article using the positioning device of claim 1, A vertical coordinate calculation step of obtaining a vertical coordinate of the article from the air pressure information measured by the pressure sensor included in the moving device (1); A moving distance calculating step of obtaining a distance between the moving device (1) and the fixed device (2) from the signal round trip time between the moving device (1) and the fixed device (2); A horizontal coordinate calculating step of obtaining a horizontal coordinate of the moving device (1) from the vertical coordinate value calculated in the vertical coordinate calculating step and the distance value calculated in the moving distance calculating step; Positioning method comprising a to calculate a three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device (1). The method of claim 8, wherein the positioning method is The three-dimensional coordinate value of the mobile device 1 calculated using the moving distance obtained through the vertical coordinate calculation step-the movement distance calculation step-the horizontal coordinate calculation step sequentially, and of the mobile device 1 A correction step of correcting the three-dimensional coordinate values of the moving device (1) by comparing with the three-dimensional coordinate values of the moving device (1) calculated using the moving distance obtained using the acceleration or the speed; Positioning method characterized in that it further comprises.

Images