DE102020200023A1 - Method and device for the highly precise determination of the position and / or orientation of an object to be located and a fixed station for a mobile radio communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the highly precise determination of the position and / or orientation of an object (10) to be located, which is designed for communication in a wireless communication network. Such highly precise self-localizations are required in particular for automatic driving and for navigation in buildings. A broadband pulse of short duration is sent from the object (10) to the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) which, when received, are answered by the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) with an immediate return of a response pulse. In this way, a measurement of the transit time of the emitted pulse takes place in the object (10) up to the arrival of the return pulse from one of the surrounding fixed stations (31-35). If the pulse is emitted by a number of antenna elements (176) attached to different positions on the object (10) and the time until the response pulse arrives at the individual antenna elements (176) is measured, the intersection point calculation with the resulting transit times and the known positions of the antenna elements of the fixed stations (31-35) are used for the highly precise self-localization.

Description

The invention relates to a method for the highly precise determination of the position and / or orientation of an object to be located. The proposal also relates to a device for the highly precise determination of the position and / or orientation of an object to be located, as well as a fixed station for a mobile radio communication system.

For the scenario of vehicles equipped with radio communication modules that communicate directly with each other in public road traffic, be it for cooperative or autonomous driving, or for participation in mobile communications and the connection to the Internet or the supply of other data services, there is a high level of reliability safety-critical applications incessantly or very important for the customer.

Aids to navigation have conquered the everyday life of many people. In this way, they help in both rural and urban areas to go to specific locations and to minimize the time to get there. Especially in vehicle applications, satellite navigation is used as a rule, into which information from signals from other vehicle sensors is incorporated in order to increase robustness. Satellite navigation is known under the term GNSS, corresponding to Global Navigation Satellite System.

In densely built-up areas, however, satellite navigation reaches its technical limits, as the satellite signals in narrow urban canyons often cannot be received directly, but only indirectly after (multiple) reflections on the walls of houses. The satellite-based localization result is sometimes so falsified that it is at least temporarily unsuitable for correcting the position estimate from the (less precise) vehicle sensor signals.

The localization task is even more difficult inside buildings. Since the satellite signals usually do not penetrate ceilings and walls, a process has to be developed for indoor navigation applications that works completely without satellite signals. It is necessary to meet significantly higher accuracy requirements compared to outdoor navigation. While this is the most important vehicle application required for autonomous driving of a vehicle in a parking garage in order to avoid collisions with other vehicles or parking garage obstacles, with an electronic museum guide, as a typical non-vehicle application, there is already the risk of an inaccuracy of several meters Navigating users to the wrong room.

As a non-satellite-based alternative for indoor localization, for example, the field strength of the WLAN network, which is often already in place, comes into question. It must be with the terminal, so z. B. an additional unit of the vehicle navigation system or the electronic museum guide, the signal can be measured and compared with maps of the characteristic field strength distribution of the WLAN network. Location determination via the earth's magnetic field, which is markedly changed by the properties of the building, is based on this principle. However, the effort involved in creating and continuously updating the field strength maps is high, especially against the background of the pronounced accuracy requirements.

Another possibility is based on the installation of small transmitters within a building, which for example transmit Bluetooth low energy signals (BLE signals). The location can then be determined using trilateration, for example: the respective distance to the end device is determined from the signals from three transmitters and the position is determined by calculating the intersection point with the aid of the known transmitter locations and the determined distances. For distance measurement, similar to radar technology, transit time measurements of transmitted signals can be carried out, which are reflected back or are re-transmitted directly by the transmitter when a measurement signal from the object arrives. Another possibility is a field strength measurement, whereby the distance to the transmitter can also be determined with the help of a correspondingly precise map of the field strength distribution for a standard broadcast.

An example of a position determination system based on GPS signal evaluation is shown in US2004 / 0193372 A1 also described for the platooning application. The GPS system is improved by combining it with Bluetooth. Location information is exchanged with a vehicle in the platoon via a Bluetooth connection. During operation, the vehicles communicate satellite data via the Bluetooth connections. This makes it possible to use the Bluetooth radio links to reduce the number of satellites required for the GPS system without losing the accuracy of the measurements. Attention is drawn to the possibility of using UWB communication as an alternative to Bluetooth communication.

Another example of such a system is in US 2015/0269845 A1 described. The need for high-precision synchronization of the clocks in the vehicles is particularly pointed out here in order to measure the exact position of the vehicles using runtime measurements. As a solution Reference is made to the use of high-precision clocks in GNSS systems.

From the DE 10 2015 122 145 A1 a method for improved position determination of a mobile station or a hand-held device within a cellular network is known. The method comprises the steps of: transmitting at least three radio signals between the mobile station and a corresponding number of at least three base stations, at least each of the three radio signals including time information indicating a transmission time of the corresponding radio signal; Calculating a time delay for each of the at least three radio signals based on a difference between an arrival time and the transmission time of the corresponding radio signal; Retrieving the information for each of the at least three radio signals about the transmission path losses of the corresponding radio signal from a data memory; Calculating a distance of the mobile station from the corresponding base station for each of the at least three radio signals based on the time delay and the information about the transmission path losses; and determining a location of the mobile station based on the trilateration of the at least three distances.

From the US 2019 066 504 A1 A ground-based radio system known as the Autonomous Transceivers Positioning System ("ATPS") is known that performs complete autonomous tracking of multiple moving objects and determines the position and speed components (speed and direction) of a moving object or the stationary position of an object . For a moving object, the system offers position determination with an accuracy of several centimeters and speed determination with an accuracy of centimeters per second. The ATPS system tracks the position of several objects simultaneously and continuously as long as the objects are in the working area of the wireless ATPS system. The ATPS contains RFID-inspired components, including advanced autonomous wireless interrogators with multiple fixed locations within the defined work area of the system and multiple autonomous wireless responders attached to moving and / or stationary objects.

In the WO 2019 143 437 A1 describes positioning techniques that enable a target user equipment (UE) to be located in a wireless communication network that is served by one (or a number of) different radio access technologies (RATs). The techniques include field strength measurements, time of flight measurements, and angle measurements.

Due to the wavelength of the WLAN and BLE signals of approx. 12.5 cm, corresponding to a frequency of 2.5 GHz, localization with sufficiently high accuracy is in principle possible. Since the permitted WLAN and BLE transmission power is high enough to achieve interference-free or interference-free information transmission even with larger antenna distances and thus acceptable system costs, it must be assumed for indoor navigation applications that the WLAN and BLE signals cannot be received directly from every point, but only indirectly after (multiple) reflections on walls and obstacles. The localization accuracy theoretically possible with a wavelength of 12.5 cm can only be approximated under these conditions if the (multiple) reflections are compensated with dedicated computer models. On the one hand, these calculation models are very complex and therefore time-consuming to develop; on the other hand, they have to be kept continuously up-to-date in order to be able to take into account any structural changes to the building during system operation over several years.

The work required for this is no longer necessary if the antenna density is increased, so that most of the WLAN and BLE signals can be received directly, thus reducing the proportion of (multiple) reflections. To compensate for indoor localization, generic models are sufficient, which on the one hand are simpler and on the other hand no longer have to be continuously updated.

For indoor navigation applications with particularly high accuracy requirements, it may be necessary to expand the trilateration method described above to include an ultra-wide-band approach (UWB approach). Its principle consists in sending out from a transmitter of an autonomously driving vehicle or an electronic museum guide, for example, a time-limited impulse with a duration <1ns and a pronounced edge steepness corresponding to a bandwidth of several hundred MHz. Due to the principle, the radiation power of a UWB pulse is distributed over the very large bandwidth. Thus, there is only a slightly increased radiated power per bandwidth interval, so that the limit value of the specific radiated power of another type of communication broadcast by the same station is practically not exceeded by the additional UWB broadcast in the respective interval.

Despite the low power of the UWB pulse, receivers installed in the indoor area must be able to correctly detect the UWB pulse and respond in the direction of the sending one To send back the device. The distance between the receivers distributed in the indoor area must therefore not exceed a maximum value that depends on the given boundary conditions and should ideally be selected so that there is visual contact with at least three receivers from every point in the indoor area. The rationale for this requirement is the need to be able to recognize and ignore reflections. In the absence of direct visual contact, only reflected signals or even multiple reflected signals would be present. In order to be able to determine the distance between transmitter and receiver from this, complex calculation models would be required. These models must always be kept up-to-date in order to be able to reflect any structural changes. If there is a direct line of sight between the transmitter and receiver, it is possible to recognize and ignore reflections and multiple reflections. The distance calculation can then be determined with high accuracy on the basis of the direct pulse transit time.

Under these conditions, by precisely measuring the time between the transmission of the original pulse and the re-arrival of the reflected pulse from at least three receivers, it is possible to determine the distances between the terminal device and the transmitter and to determine the terminal device position using the transmitter locations and the distances.

The pronounced synchronization of currently available electronic clocks enables the error of the determined position to be kept <1 cm. The advantage of this high accuracy is offset by the disadvantage of the high costs due to the large number of receivers required to reflect the transmitted pulses.

The object of the invention is to find a method for highly precise self-localization for objects, in particular vehicles, which move within buildings.

This object is achieved by a method for determining the position and / or orientation of an object to be located according to claim 1, a device for determining the position and / or orientation of an object to be located according to claim 10, and a base station for a mobile radio communication system according to claim 14 .

The dependent claims contain advantageous developments and improvements of the invention according to the following description of these measures.

The solution to the problem consists in a method for the highly precise determination of the position and / or orientation of an object which is designed for communication in a wireless communication network. This can be implemented in the form of a cellular radio communication network. For highly precise position and / or orientation determination, broadband pulses of short duration are sent from the object to the surrounding fixed stations, which are answered by the surrounding fixed stations in an immediate return when they are received. To determine the exact position and / or orientation, a measurement of the transit time of the emitted pulse is carried out in the object up to the arrival of the return pulse from one of the surrounding fixed stations. In this case, the pulse is repeatedly emitted one after the other by a number of antenna elements attached to different positions on the object and the transit time from and to the individual antenna elements is measured in each case. From the transit time, the position of the antenna element of the object is determined based on the measured transit times and the known positions of the fixed stations. An intersection point calculation is carried out. If measurement results are available for three different base stations, the intersection calculation corresponds to a trilateration calculation. If there are more measurement results, the intersection point calculation can be done in the form of a multilateration calculation. The position of the antenna elements is calculated based on the position of the intersection points. Theoretically, it is possible that two returns from different base stations arrive at the object at the same time. If there is a fault here, the measurement must be repeated. In the case of a moving object, other conditions will quickly arise so that the disturbance is eliminated.

In a preferred variant, the broadband pulses of short duration can correspond to ultra-wide-band pulses (UWB). These are pulses that are emitted in the UHF or SHF frequency band. They are particularly suitable for measuring distances. The UWB pulses have a high bandwidth of approx. 500 MHz or more, which results in a short duration in the time range of a few or fractions of nanoseconds. This is why UWB pulses are also used to measure distances, but only for short distances, as they are emitted with only a small amount of radiant energy and the range is accordingly limited.

For the method, it is advantageous if the antennas of the fixed stations are designed in the form of antenna arrays which consist of a number of antenna elements, a number of antenna elements emitting the measurement pulse in parallel for the transit time measurement or a single antenna element being used to measure the To emit measuring pulse. In particular, the 5G antennas for the so-called 26 GHz frequency band are suitable for use in the measurement process. It can be expected to be implemented across the board as soon as the current roll-out of 5G telecommunications technology for the 3.5 GHz frequency band has been completed. In the 26 GHz band, the propagation conditions are worse than in the frequency ranges up to 10.6 GHz, since the radio signals in this frequency range are subject to a markedly high level of attenuation. Therefore, a reduction in the distance between the base stations is necessary, but this allows more frequent line of sight connections and reduces the problem with multiple reflections.
A very advantageous variant results when three different transit time measurements with three different individual antenna elements of the antenna array are carried out in succession in the fixed stations, the individual antenna elements being selected so that they are as far apart as possible. These three individual measurements provide results for three different positions of three different antenna elements. It is advantageous to carry out the transit time measurements one after the other, since in this case only one antenna element needs to be present in the remote station (here the object). This results in cost advantages. However, if not only the position of the object, but also its orientation, for example in the form of the yaw angle, are to be determined, several antenna elements, e.g. B. in the form of further apart individual antenna elements in the counterpart (here the object) is required.

In both cases, the position of the vehicle-side antenna element or the vehicle-side antenna elements can then be calculated by trilateration calculation based on the transit time measurements to the three antenna elements of the antenna array of the base station. However, the accuracy of the position determination also depends on the distance between the antenna elements of the antenna array or arrays.

Here it is also advantageous if, when the response pulses from two or more different surrounding fixed stations arrive at an antenna element of the object, the position determinations of the antenna element of the object to be located are averaged. As a result, the accuracy of the position determination can be increased again.

It is also advantageous if the transit time measurements by the various antenna elements of the object are subjected to a plausibility check for the pulse sent back from a base station, a transit time that was rejected as faulty in the plausibility check is not used for the intersection calculation. This prevents a transit time measurement that is subject to major errors from impairing the accuracy of the position determination. Under certain circumstances it is possible that a measuring pulse is reflected off of obstacles and does not return directly to an antenna. The runtime measurement then no longer corresponds to the direct distance measurement between the object and the base station and is thus falsified.

In one variant, the plausibility check is based on a comparison of the measured transit times taking into account the local proximity of the antenna elements attached to the object, and those transit times are rejected as faulty whose transit times do not correlate with the local proximity of the antennas. In other words, the plausibility check makes use of the fact that there will be a transit time measurement based on direct reception. If other time-of-flight measurements differ greatly from the known distance from the object's antennas, it is assumed that they are based on reflection reception. These are then discarded as faulty.

The measure of carrying out a weighting of the transit time measurements as a function of the results of the plausibility check can also increase the accuracy of the position determination.

Finally, according to the method, the position and orientation of the object is determined from the determined antenna element positions on the object. If the object is a vehicle, the vehicle position and / or orientation is required for a variety of purposes. Among other things for navigation purposes. But even if the vehicle is equipped with an automatic driving function, the position and / or orientation information is essential so that there is no collision with an obstacle or another road user. But even if the object is not a vehicle but, for example, a pedestrian, the accuracy of the position and / or orientation determination is just as important, so that the navigation works especially within buildings.

A particularly advantageous variant of determining the position and / or orientation of the object is achieved by using a trilateration calculation or multilateration calculation based on the transit time measurements of an antenna element attached to the object for the pulses sent back from three or more different base stations. This means that the position can be determined to within a few centimeters and the orientation to less than 10 °. Here the distances between the base stations are large enough to accommodate the Perform trilateration with high accuracy. The smaller the distances between the fixed stations, the more errors in the transit time measurement affect the position and / or orientation determination.

In another embodiment, the invention also relates to a corresponding device for determining the position and / or orientation of an object to be located. The device is equipped with a communication module for communication in a wireless communication network. The device is also equipped for communication with the surrounding fixed stations of the communication network. The device is characterized by a number of antenna elements attached to the object at different positions, one transceiver being provided for each attached antenna element, which is located in the vicinity of the position of the antenna element. The advantage of positioning in the vicinity of the antenna element is that only short connecting lines are required between the antenna element and the transceiver. This is necessary in order not to falsify the runtime measurements as far as possible. The transceiver is used to generate a broadband pulse of short duration, which is emitted by the antenna element to the surrounding base stations, and to receive a response pulse sent by the surrounding base stations by direct return. It is also used to measure the transit time of the emitted pulse until the response pulse arrives from one of the surrounding fixed stations. The impulse is transmitted by the various antenna elements that are attached to different positions on the object, and the transit time is measured by the transceivers assigned to the individual antenna elements. With this arrangement, the position and / or orientation of the object can be determined very precisely using common methods for calculating intersection points, in particular trilateration or multilateration.

In one variant, the communication module is connected to the transceivers of the antenna elements attached to the various positions, and the communication module is designed to prompt the various transceivers one after the other to transmit the broadband pulse of short duration or to assign them the respective planned times for the successive transmission of the broadband pulses. This is necessary so that there is no interference between the pulses. There is a risk if the impulses are emitted by different antennas at the same time.

It is then also advantageous if the communication module is also designed for communication in a cellular network and is set up to send an announcement message for the position and / or orientation measurement phase to the surrounding fixed stations, which announces the arrival of a broadband pulse and the base stations are requested to respond to the incoming pulse by sending back the response pulse immediately. The transit time measurement can only be calculated directly by calculating the difference between the point in time at which the measurement pulse was transmitted and the point in time when the response pulse arrived if the response pulse is transmitted immediately.

In addition, it is advantageous if the base stations are requested with the announcement message to send their identification to the communication unit in a further pulse or a further pulse train or in a message via a logical channel of the wireless communication system following the transmission of the response pulse.

In a further embodiment, the invention also relates to a vehicle, a device according to the invention being installed in the vehicle.

Finally, in a further embodiment, the invention also relates to a base station for a mobile radio communication system with an antenna arrangement and with a transmitting and receiving unit. The transmitting and receiving unit is designed to receive an announcement message for the position and / or orientation determination measurement phase of an object to be localized and, in response to the receipt of the announcement message, to switch to an operating mode in which the broadband pulse of a short duration is received is waited and to send back the response pulse immediately upon receipt of the pulse.

Furthermore, it is advantageous if the transmitting and receiving unit is designed to receive another announcement message with which the base station is put into a different operating mode in which it determines three antenna elements of the antenna array that each have a response pulse for separate transit time measurements Send the arrival of the broadband pulse back to the object. The runtime measurements take place one after the other.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings and is explained in more detail below with reference to the figures.

• 1 das Prinzip der Fahrzeugkommunikation über Mobilfunk;
• 2 die Sichtlinienverhältnisse zwischen in Abständen von 50 - 100 m angebrachten Feststationen eines Mobilfunkkommunikationssystems in einem ruralen Bereich;
• 3 die Sichtlinienverhältnisse zwischen in Abständen von 50 - 100 m angebrachten Feststationen eines Mobilfunkkommunikationssystems in einem urbanen Bereich;
• 4 die Sichtlinienverhältnisse zwischen in Abständen von 30 - 50 m angebrachten Feststationen eines Mobilfunkkommunikationssystems in einem Parkhaus;
• 5 ein Beispiel einer Antennenanordnung in Form eines Antennen-Arrays wie sie in einer Feststation eines 5G-Mobilfunksystems eingesetzt werden;
• 6 ein Beispiel einer Antennenanordnung und der zugehörigen Transceiver bei einem Fahrzeug;
• 7 ein Blockdiagramm für die Fahrzeugelektronik eines Kraftfahrzeuges;
• 8 ein erstes Beispiel der Sichtlinienverhältnisse von einem Fahrzeug zu mehreren umliegenden Feststationen in einem Parkhaus; und
• 9 ein zweites Beispiel der Sichtlinienverhältnisse von einem Fahrzeug zu mehreren umliegenden Feststationen in dem Parkhaus.

Show it:

• 1 the principle of vehicle communication via cellular radio;
• 2 the line-of-sight relationships between fixed stations of a cellular radio communication system at intervals of 50-100 m in a rural area;
• 3 the line-of-sight relationships between fixed stations of a cellular radio communication system in an urban area at intervals of 50-100 m;
• 4th the line-of-sight relationships between fixed stations of a cellular radio communication system in a car park at intervals of 30-50 m;
• 5 an example of an antenna arrangement in the form of an antenna array as used in a fixed station of a 5G mobile radio system;
• 6th an example of an antenna arrangement and the associated transceivers in a vehicle;
• 7th a block diagram for the vehicle electronics of a motor vehicle;
• 8th a first example of the line-of-sight relationships from a vehicle to several surrounding fixed stations in a parking garage; and
• 9 a second example of the line-of-sight relationships from a vehicle to several surrounding fixed stations in the parking garage.

The present description illustrates the principles of the disclosure of the invention. It is therefore understood that those skilled in the art will be able to design various arrangements which, although not explicitly described here, embody the principles of the disclosure according to the invention and are also intended to be protected in their scope.

1 shows the principle of vehicle communication using cellular radio. The vehicles are with reference number 10 Mistake.

The term vehicle is understood as a collective term, be it for vehicles with internal combustion engines or electric motors, for bicycles with or without electric motors or other vehicles powered by muscle power, e.g. wheelchairs, for vehicles with one, two, four or more wheels it for motorcycles, passenger cars, trucks, buses, agricultural vehicles or construction machinery. The list is not exhaustive and also includes other vehicle categories. This also includes aircraft, watercraft or rail vehicles. In addition, objects other than vehicles can also be located. It can be used in production such. B. tools or goods to be produced can also be located. It is Z. B. important where are tools that are used in different places. It is also important to know where a product to be manufactured is located, for example during assembly line production. There are also applications for warehousing in logistics centers in order to locate the goods. But even people can be located in this way if they are equipped with the appropriate devices. For example, the use of technology in museums is being considered in order to implement an automatic guided tour through the museum. The location of patient beds in hospitals would also be a conceivable area of application.

The vehicles in 1 are each with a so-called on-board unit 110 equipped, which serves as a communication module for a cellular communication system. This on-board unit 110 corresponds to a mobile radio network subscriber station within the meaning of the disclosure of the invention. Examples of public mobile radio networks are the already mentioned mobile radio communication systems LTE and 5G. In these mobile radio communication systems, the typical mobile radio network subscriber stations are referred to as UE, corresponding to user equipment. In the case shown, it is the on-board unit 110 also a fully-fledged mobile network subscriber station in a passenger car. All messages from the vehicles (uplink) and to the vehicles (downlink) are either sent via a cellular base station 30th that serves a cell phone or, in the case of direct vehicle communication (sidelink), is exchanged directly between the vehicles. Are the vehicles 10 within this cell, they are at the base station 30th logged in or booked. If they leave the cell, they are transferred to the neighboring cell (handover) and accordingly to the base station 30th logged off or fully booked. The base station 30th also provides access to the Internet so that the vehicles 10 or all other mobile radio subscribers in the mobile radio cell are supplied with Internet data. The base station is also available 30th via the so-called S1 interface with the EPC 40 (Evolved Packet Core) in connection. Central computers can still be reached via the Internet 300 or another wide area network WAN 50 or generally the servers of a service provider.

Such mobile radio technologies are standardized and in this regard reference is made to the corresponding specifications of mobile radio standards.

Above all, LTE stands for high transmission rates and short response times. At the moment, the newer 5G cellular standard is being massively modified worked. This should be able to be used much more flexibly for the various purposes of application. Some keywords for the newer purposes are Internet of Things loT, Industry 4.0, vehicle-to-vehicle communication for autonomous or cooperative driving. The 5G mobile radio system should provide the data connection for all of these applications. That only works if there is a massive network expansion. In particular, communication within buildings is also improved.

As with LTE, the transmission speed of 5G essentially depends on the frequency range, the channel width and the distance to the base station 30th and the number of participants within the cellular network. The more users use the bandwidth at the same time, the lower the transmission rate per participant. However, there can be a prioritization for payment services and more work is done with Quality of Service QoS in which bandwidth can be reserved for certain applications. For the 5G mobile radio system, too, reference is made to the various specifications for the exact details of the 5G standard. These are available from the Internet domain www.3gpp.org.

As with LTE and 5G, OFDMA technology (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) is used for the downlink. There, the well-known multi-carrier transmission technology OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) is used, in which data symbols are modulated onto the individual carriers using QPSK (Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying) or QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation). With OFDMA, the available frequency band is divided into many narrow bands (channels). The bandwidth is used flexibly in order to get the most out of the frequencies in terms of transmission power.

Special algorithms select the suitable channels and take into account the influences from the environment. In this case, only those carriers are preferably used for the transmission that are most favorable for the user at his respective location.

The SC-FDMA technology (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) is used for the uplink. This is a single carrier access method which is otherwise very similar to OFDMA. SC-FDMA has less power fluctuations and makes simpler power amplifiers possible. This primarily saves the battery of mobile devices.

Uplink communication resources are also used for vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

A new frequency band is made available for 5G in the 26 GHz range. Due to the pronounced attenuation of radio waves in the 26 GHz frequency band by the atmosphere, it is necessary to implement the corresponding 5G antennas at a distance of <50-100m. This is the only way to ensure a sufficiently small attenuation of the telecommunication signals during transmission between 5G end devices and 5G antennas in rural areas with as much direct visual contact as possible to the 5G antennas. The 2 shows the distance between the 5G base stations in the rural area and the 3 the distance between 5G fixed stations in urban areas.

In urban areas, there is also the fact that there is only direct visual contact between the 5G antennas and telecommunication devices if the distance between the 5G antennas is <50-100 m from most points.

Inside buildings, on the other hand, an even higher density of 5G antennas and thus a distance of is required for realizing direct visual contact between 5G antennas and subscriber terminals UE 30th - 50 m required, s. 4th .

This small distance between the 5G antennas for the 26 GHz range, which is already available for telecommunications, can be used for highly precise self-localization of the subscriber stations. It is also particularly advantageous that the 5G antennas for telecommunications are actually antenna arrays with a large number of elements. Such an antenna array 310 is shown in FIG 5 shown. With an element dimension of, for example, 2 cm × 2 cm, this results in a corresponding manner for an antenna array 310 5 a base of 12cm x 12cm. The reason for using such antenna arrays in 5G is that the use of beam steering technology should also be supported in 5G.

Antenna arrays with such dimensions can easily be used in the rural area z. B. along roads, railways and waterways, but also in urban areas and inside buildings and parking garages according to the 2 , 3 and 4th to be installed. In the vehicle 10 or more generally on mobile objects, it is more difficult to use such antenna arrays. So-called 5G single-element antennas are already available for this, such as those offered by the consortium of NTT DOCOMO, AGC and Ericsson with dimensions of 1 cm x 1.5 cm. One such element is in the 5 also shown.

According to one aspect of the invention, such individual antenna elements are attached to several Places in the vehicle 10 installed to enable highly accurate self-localization. This is required for autonomously driving vehicles, assisted driving vehicles or cooperatively driving vehicles. High-precision self-localization is also required for navigation within buildings, such as parking garages.

That’s what the vehicles are for 10 each equipped with at least one 5G single element antenna 176 on the front, rear and side windows of the vehicle. Each single-element antenna is equipped with a transmitter and receiver unit 170 connected near the antenna. The transmitting and receiving unit is referred to below as the transceiver. The various transceivers are networked with one another. In addition, they come with the on-board unit 110 networked. The components and their networking are in the 6th shown. The shoring is the transceiver 170 required near the antenna in order to be able to emit the measuring pulse, which is limited in time to <1ns, with the required extreme edge steepness. The 6th shows the special form of networking in the form of a linear communication bus. A variant of the CAN bus, corresponding to the Controller Area Network, can be used as an example. The CAN bus meets the requirements in terms of data rate and short latency by using the CSMA-CA bus access procedure, corresponding to Carrier Sense Multiple Access - Collision Avoidance.

The embedding of the antenna arrangement in the overall system of the on-board electronics is shown in the block diagram of FIG 7th shown.

7th shows a typical structure of on-board electronics 100 of a modern motor vehicle 10 , in which there is also a device according to the invention for high-precision self-localization. With the reference number 151 is called an engine control unit. The reference number 152 corresponds to an ESP control unit and the reference number 153 refers to a transmission control unit. Further control devices such as airbag control devices, etc. can be present in the motor vehicle. Such control devices are typically networked with the CAN bus system (Controller Area Network) 104, which is standardized as an ISO standard, ISO 11898 . Since various sensors are installed in the motor vehicle and these are no longer only connected to individual control units, such sensor data are also transmitted via the bus system 104 transferred to the individual control units. Examples of sensors in the motor vehicle are wheel speed sensors, steering angle sensors, acceleration sensors, yaw rate sensors, tire pressure sensors, distance sensors, etc. The various sensors with which the vehicle is equipped are in the 7th with the reference number 161 , 162 , 163 designated.

The modern motor vehicle can, however, also have other components such as video cameras, e.g. as a reversing camera or as a driver monitoring camera or also as a front camera to observe the traffic situation.

For a number of years, driver assistance systems have been offered which record the driving environment with radar, lidar or video sensors, form an internal representation of the driving situation through the interpretation of this sensor data and, based on this knowledge, increasingly sophisticated functions through information and warning of the driver up to targeted interventions run in the vehicle guidance. For example, the longitudinal guidance on well-structured roads, such as motorways, can be carried out automatically for a large part of the time by an ACC system (Adaptive Cruise Control) equipped with lidar sensors and / or radar sensors. With this and with other precautions, even fully automatic vehicles can be implemented.

Further electronic devices are then also located in the motor vehicle. These are arranged more in the area of the passenger compartment and are often also operated by the driver. Examples are a user interface device (not shown) with which the driver can select driving modes, but can also operate classic components. This includes gear selection as well as indicator control, windshield wiper control, light control, etc.

A navigation system is often distinguished from this 120 , which is also installed in the cockpit area. The route, which is shown on a map, can be shown on a display in the cockpit. The reference number 110 still refers to an on-board unit. This on-board unit 110 corresponds to a communication module via which the vehicle 10 can receive and send mobile data. As described, this can be a cellular communication module, e.g. B. act according to the 5G standard.

The devices in the passenger compartment are also networked with one another via a bus system with the reference number 102 referred to as. It can e.g. This is, for example, the high-speed CAN bus system according to ISO 11898-2 standard, but here in the variant for data transmission with a higher data rate between infotainment devices. Alternatively, Ethernet is also used to network components in the vehicle. For the purpose, the vehicle-relevant sensor data via the communication module 110 to be transmitted to another vehicle or to another central computer is the gateway 140 intended. This is with the various bus systems 102 , 104 connected. The Gateway 140 is designed for the data that it receives via the CAN bus 104 received in such a way that they are in the transmission format of the high-speed CAN bus 102 implemented so that they can be distributed in the data packets specified there. The communication module is responsible for forwarding this data externally 110 equipped to receive these data packets and convert them into the transmission format of the corresponding communication standard. In order to implement the highly precise self-localization, the on-board electronics at the in 6th the transceiver 170 provided on which in turn the antenna elements 176 are connected with a short antenna cable. In the example shown, there are four 5G antenna elements 176 with the associated transceivers 170 intended. The transceiver 170 are on the high-speed CAN bus 102 connected.

The individual transceivers can 170 via the CAN bus 102 Messages with the navigation system 120 and the on-board unit 110 change. The application, which is considered here as one of many exemplary embodiments, corresponds to the implementation of a high-precision navigation system 120 that can also be used for navigation inside buildings. The problem in parking garages is often that they are overcrowded and that it is difficult for drivers to find a free parking space. Parking garages are often very angled and spread over several levels. This can lead to vehicles arriving in search of a free parking space having to travel long distances to find a parking space. This is a waste of resources, leads to more exhaust fumes in the city and also leads to displeasure among those looking for a parking space. An intelligent navigation system should help here. This can receive the information about the locations of free parking spaces in the parking garage via the Internet connection from the server 50 of the parking garage. It can also get the detailed map for route guidance in the parking garage from the server 50 load. The navigation system 120 can then the vehicle 10 lead to the free parking space. For this, however, the highly precise self-localization is required.

The process of high-precision self-localization is now carried out with the help of the 8th and 9 explained. This is what the transceivers are for 170 from one in the on-board unit 110 integrated coordination unit 172 via the CAN bus 102 requested one after the other to transmit the time-limited measuring pulse with a pronounced edge steepness. This measurement pulse is generated in the respective transceiver using the ultra-wide band radio technology developed for short-range radio 170 generated. The Federal Network Agency has currently released some frequency ranges in the SHF range that is of interest here. These are ranges between 3.1 and 10.6 GHz. The newly approved 26 GHz range for 5G communication, which is also expected to be approved for UWB communication in the future, would also be interesting. The transmission power is very low at 0.5 mW / -41.3 dBm / MHz. Since this transmission power is distributed over a bandwidth of 500 MHz, there is practically no interference with other radio systems. With these key data, the range is 10 - 50 m at a distance of 30th - 50 m between the 5G base stations distributed in the car park, it would be necessary to design the UWB communication for a range of 50 m, which is possible by adjusting the transmission power.

Before the UWB measurement pulses can be transmitted, a defined announcement message is first sent via 5G communication to the control units of the 5G fixed stations with visual contact to the antenna elements on the vehicle 176 sent out, with which the respective base station is switched to a special operating mode in which it waits for the arrival of UWB measurement pulses from a number of antenna elements that are as far apart as possible, in order to then send them back directly to the respective antenna element. Following this, the identifier of the respective base station is then additionally sent to the vehicle by the antenna element via a UWB pulse sequence sent directly afterwards 176 in the vehicle 10 recorded, in which the transmission of the measurement pulse took place, from the associated transceiver 170 evaluated and sent to the on-board unit 110 forwarded together with the measured value for the measured transit time. The individual bits of the identifier can be transmitted with the pulse train in the simplest case by sending a pulse or omitting a pulse as coding for the bit states. Alternatively, it is possible to transmit the identifier after the UWB measurement via a logical channel of the mobile radio system. The 5G and LTE mobile radio systems offer various logical channels here. The logical channel PH ICH (Physical Hybrid Indicator Channel) of the 5G mobile radio system is mentioned as an example, on which confirmations that were previously sent to the base station are transmitted.

The transceiver 170 works so that after the transceiver 170 via the connected vehicle antenna 176 has sent the measuring pulse, the transceiver 170 checked over a specified, limited period of time to what extent immediately returned pulses arrive. If so, it determines the impulse transit time. After the assignment to the identifiers of the stationary antenna array of the base station which were also sent when the response pulse was emitted 31-35 and the respective processing time for the Sending the response pulse after receiving the input pulse, the processing time is subtracted from the difference between the times for the transmission of the measuring pulse and the reception of the response pulse and the result is divided by two to determine the transit time for the one-way distance. The measured runtime values and the associated base station IDs are then forwarded to the on-board unit 110 via the CAN bus 102 . In the event of a lack of visual contact between the vehicle's antenna 176 and the antenna array 310 of a base station 31-35 , becomes the on-board unit 110 alternatively communicated that no response pulses have arrived within the specified, limited period of time. The case of a response pulse not arriving within a limited time occurs when the vehicle-mounted antenna 176 outside the reception range of the antenna array of the base station 31-35 and / or the antenna array 310 of the base station 31-35 outside the reception area of the vehicle-side antenna element 176 lies.

After receiving the information from all antenna control units on the vehicle 170 appreciates the on-board unit on the vehicle 110 From the transmitted pulse transit times, first the distance between the antenna elements on the vehicle 176 and the antenna arrays 310 of the fixed stations in the reception area before, taking into account the known locations of the antenna arrays 310, as part of a plausibility check, which distance values result from multiple reflections is identified. After eliminating these distance values resulting from multiple reflections, the calculation of the vehicle-side antenna positions by means of trilateration or multilateration takes place on the basis of the remaining distance values from measurements via direct visual contact. The calculated antenna positions on the vehicle are then used 10 the vehicle position and / or orientation is calculated.

The 8th shows one level of a multi-storey car park with many parking spaces. Some blocked areas that are occupied by walls, columns or other structural features are shown filled. A few 5G fixed stations are distributed on the parking level 31-35 with their 5G antenna arrays. Due to the structural conditions, but also due to other parked vehicles, there may be shadowing, so that the UWB measurement signals received from the antenna elements 176 at the vehicle 10 radiated, no direct line of sight to the antenna arrays of the base stations 31-35 to have. This is indicated by dashed lines in 8th indicated. So have with one accordingly 8th positioned vehicle 10 the vehicle-side windshield antenna element and the right-side side window antenna element 176 Visual contact to the antenna array 310 of the base station 31 , on the other hand, has the left side window antenna element 176 no line of sight to the antenna array 310 of the base stations 31 . Also exists for all vehicle antenna elements 176 no direct line of sight to the 5G base stations 32 , 33 , 34 . Also to the base station 35 there is no line of sight. But that would even be the case if there were no blocked areas in the way, because the base station 35 is no longer within range of the emitted pulse. Just the antenna elements 176 Pulse transit times are therefore reported on the windscreen and the left and right side windows, while the rear window antenna element cannot receive any response pulses that are reflected back.

The antenna element on the left-hand side window may report a pulse transit time because it has no direct, but indirect visual contact. That is in the 8th indicated by the dashed line, initially from the vehicle 10 leads to the neighboring blocked area and from there in the direction of the antenna array of the base station 31 . Already from the 8th it can be seen that the antenna element 176 The transit time measurement reported on the left side window will deliver a value that is too high because the signal path is significantly longer than that of the other two antenna elements 176 is. Therefore takes place in the coordination unit 172 the on-board unit 110 a plausibility check takes place. The plausibility check can be carried out in a variant in the form of a comparison of the pulse transit times reported by the left and right side window antennas. It is compared against a tolerance value. If a measured value exceeds the specified tolerance value from the measured value of the antenna element 176 the other side window deviates, the measurement is identified as faulty and discarded.

With the remaining two antenna elements, the position and / or orientation of the object is then determined using a second measuring method. When the second measuring method is used, the antenna element is determined 176 , for which no direct visual contact was identified, is omitted. However, this is then the minimum number of three antenna elements required 176 for trilateration fell below. To remedy this, the second measurement method is used in this case. The measurement is then carried out again using the second method. The antenna array 310 of the base station is used differently. From the antenna array 310, three antenna elements are selected that are as far apart as possible. In 5 the positions of the selected antenna elements are marked. They are with the reference numerals 31A , 31B , 31C designated. With these three antenna elements 31A , 31B , 31C three runtime measurements are carried out one after the other. As the positions of these three antenna elements 31A , 31B , 31C differ, the transit times will also differ. A trilateration calculation can then be carried out with the results to determine the positions of the vehicle antenna elements 176 to calculate. The position and / or orientation of the vehicle can then again be derived from this 10 to be determined. To carry out the second measurement method, it is necessary to initiate this operating mode. For this purpose, an announcement message is sent to the base station in which the second operating mode is announced. In order to avoid falsification of the pulse transit times when estimating the position of these two vehicle antennas, it is necessary, after the pulse has been transmitted by one of the two vehicle antennas, to wait for its reflection before the next pulse is transmitted by the other of the two antennas.

The 9 shows the line of sight conditions for another position of the vehicle 10 on the depicted parking level. The same reference numerals denote the same components as in FIG 8th . At the in 9 shown position of the vehicle 10 The front and left side window antennas have visual contact with both the antenna array of the base station 31 as well as the base station 32 . In addition, the antenna array 310 has the base station 35 both side visual contact to the rear window antenna element 176 as well as almost frontal visual contact with the antenna element 176 the right side window. In this case there is a line of sight to three different base stations 31 , 32 , 35 . Two antenna elements each 176 of the vehicle have visual contact with the base stations. For each antenna element 176 the position can then be determined by two different trilateration calculations. It is then possible to average between these. The averaging results in an improvement in the accuracy of the position determination. From the individual positions of the antenna elements 176 at the vehicle 10 then again the position and / or orientation of the vehicle 10 certainly.

• • Indirekte Schätzung der Fahrzeugposition und/oder -orientierung aus den vorher mittels Trilateration berechneten und ggfs. gemittelten fahrzeugseitigen Antennenelementpositionen auf Basis der Laufzeitmessungen zu je drei Einzelantennenelementen 31A, 31B, 31C eines einzigen Antennen-Arrays.
• • Direkte Schätzung der Fahrzeugposition und/oder -orientierung mittels Trilateration auf Basis der reflektierten Pulslaufzeiten je eines ausgewählten Antennenelementes 31E aus drei unterschiedlichen im Raum verteilten Antennen-Arrays.

In summary, there are two options for determining the vehicle position and / or orientation:

• • Indirect estimation of the vehicle position and / or orientation from the vehicle-side antenna element positions calculated beforehand using trilateration and possibly averaged on the basis of the transit time measurements for three individual antenna elements each 31A , 31B , 31C a single antenna array.
• • Direct estimation of the vehicle position and / or orientation by means of trilateration on the basis of the reflected pulse transit times of a selected antenna element 31E from three different antenna arrays distributed in the room.

When performing the two above-mentioned methods and averaging the results, it can be ensured that a high degree of estimation accuracy is achieved for all vehicle positions and / or orientations. A further increase in accuracy can be achieved by weighting the results from the above methods. The weighting factors can result, for example, from a plausibility check in the form of a comparison of the determined vehicle-side antenna positions (e.g. right / left side window) and / or from taking into account the angle of incidence of reflected pulses from the stationary antenna arrays.

It should be understood that the proposed method and associated devices can be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. Specialty processors can include application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), reduced instruction set computers (RISC), and / or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The proposed method and the device are preferably implemented as a combination of hardware and software. The software is preferably installed as an application program on a program storage device. It is typically a machine based on a computer platform that has hardware, such as one or more central processing units (CPU), a random access memory (RAM) and one or more input / output (I / O) interfaces. An operating system is also typically installed on the computer platform. The various processes and functions described here can be part of the application program or a part that is executed by the operating system.

The disclosure is not restricted to the exemplary embodiments described here. There is room for various adaptations and modifications which those skilled in the art, based on their expert knowledge as well as belonging to the disclosure, would consider.

List of reference symbols

10

vehicle

30-35

Base station

31A-31E

Antenna element 5G antenna

40

Evolved Packet Core EPC

50

server

100

Vehicle electronics block diagram

102

High speed CAN bus

105

camera

104

CAN bus

110

On-board unit

120

navigation system

140

Gateway

151

Engine control unit

152

ESP control unit

153

Transmission control unit

161

Sensor 1

162

Sensor 2

163

Sensor 3

170

Front end

172

Coordination unit

176

Vehicle antenna element

QUOTES INCLUDED IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant was generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Patent literature cited

• US 2004/0193372 A1 [0008]
• US 2015/0269845 A1 [0009]
• DE 102015122145 A1 [0010]
• US 2019066504 A1 [0011]
• WO 2019143437 A1 [0012]

Non-patent literature cited

• ISO 11898 [0060]

Claims (15)

Method for the highly accurate determination of the position and / or orientation of an object (10) to be located, which is designed for communication in a wireless communication network, with broadband pulses of short duration being transmitted from the object (10) to the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) which are answered upon receipt by the surrounding fixed stations (31 - 35) in an immediate return of a response pulse, whereby in the object (10) a measurement of the transit time of the emitted pulse until the arrival of the pulse of the return from one of the surrounding fixed stations ( 31-35), characterized in that the pulse is transmitted by a number of antenna elements (176) attached to different positions on the object (10) and the time until the response pulse arrives at the individual antenna elements (176) is measured the determination of the position of the antenna elements (176) of the to be located The object (10) is based on at least one point of intersection calculation with the resulting transit times and the known positions of the antennas of the fixed stations (31-35). Procedure according to Claim 1 , the antennas of the fixed stations (31-35) being designed in the form of antenna arrays (310) consisting of a number of antenna elements (31A, 31B, 31C, 31E), a number of antenna elements (31A , 31B, 31C, 31E) emit the measurement pulse in parallel or a single antenna element (31E) is used to emit the measurement pulse. Procedure according to Claim 2 , three different transit time measurements with three different individual antenna elements (31A, 31B, 31C) of the antenna array (310) being carried out one after the other, the individual antenna elements (31A, 31B, 31C) being selected so that they are as far apart as possible to have. Procedure according to Claim 3 , the position of the vehicle-side antenna element (176) being calculated by trilateration calculation based on the transit time measurements to the three antenna elements (31A, 31B, 31C) of the antenna array (310) of the base station (31). Procedure according to Claim 1 , with the arrival of the response pulses from two or more different surrounding fixed stations (31-35) to an antenna element (176) of the object (10) an averaging of the position determinations of the antenna element (176) of the object (10) to be located. Procedure according to Claim 1 or 2 The transit time measurements by the various antenna elements (176) of the object (10) for the pulse sent back by a fixed station (31-35) are subjected to a plausibility check, with a transit time that was rejected as faulty in the plausibility check not for the intersection calculation is used. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the plausibility check is based on a comparison of the measured transit times taking into account the local proximity of the antenna elements (176) attached to the object (10) and those transit times are discarded as faulty whose transit times do not match the local proximity of the Antenna elements (176) correlated. Method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the position and / or orientation of the object (10) is determined from the determined antenna element positions on the object (10). Procedure according to Claim 1 or 2 , a trilateration calculation or multilateration calculation based on the transit time measurements of an antenna element (176) attached to the object (10) for the response pulses sent back from three or more different base stations (31-35) being carried out as the intersection calculation. Device for determining the position and / or orientation of an object (10) to be located, with a communication module (110) for communication in a wireless communication network with surrounding fixed stations (31 - 35), characterized by a number of on the object (10) antenna elements (176) mounted at different positions, each with a transceiver (170) per mounted antenna element (176), which is located in the vicinity of the position of the antenna element, the transceiver (170) for generating a broadband pulse of short duration the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) is designed, and for receiving a response pulse sent by the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) by direct return, the respective transceiver (170) measuring the transit time of the emitted pulse until the response pulse from one of the surrounding fixed stations (31-35) is designed, whereby the emission of the pulse s takes place in succession through the number of antenna elements (176) and the transit time from and to the individual antenna elements (176) on the object (10) is measured separately. Device according to Claim 10 wherein the communication module (110) is connected to the transceivers (170) of the antenna elements (176) mounted at the various positions, and the communication module (110) is designed to prompt the various transceivers (170) one after the other to transmit the broadband pulse of short duration or to assign them respective planned times for successive transmission of the broadband pulses. Device according to Claim 10 or 11 The communication module (110) is also designed for communication in a cellular network and is set up to send an announcement message for the position and / or orientation measurement phase to the surrounding fixed stations (31-35), with which the arrival of the broadband pulse is announced and the base stations (31-35) are requested to answer the incoming pulse by sending the response pulse back immediately. Device according to Claim 12 , the base stations (31-35) being requested with the announcement message to send their identification to the object (10) in a further pulse or a further pulse train or in a logical channel of the wireless communication network following the transmission of the response pulse. Fixed station for a mobile radio communication system with an antenna array (310), with a transmitting and receiving unit (320), characterized in that the transmitting and receiving unit (320) is designed to provide an announcement message for the position and / or orientation measurement phase of a Object (10) to receive and, in response to the receipt of the announcement message, to switch to an operating mode in which the arrival of a broadband pulse of short duration is waited for and a response pulse is sent back immediately upon receipt of the pulse. Base station after Claim 14 , wherein the transmitting and receiving unit (320) is designed to receive another announcement message with which the base station (31-35) is put into a different operating mode in which it has three antenna elements (31A, 31B, 31C) of the antenna array (310 ), which each send a response pulse back to the object (10) for separate transit time measurements when the broadband pulse arrives.

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