JPH09305229A - Moving body automatic operation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need for an operator and enable automatic driving in both daytime and nighttime. SOLUTION: An operation controller 16 is controlled by using position information on a moving body obtained from a differential GPS (1, 11) and information on the direction of the moving body obtained from a direction detecting device 13 and with position information set in an automatic operation part 200, the moving body is automatically operated along an operation map 20 wherein an operation path is entered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a moving body automatic driving apparatus for operating a lawnmower or the like on a golf course, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a golf course, lawn mowing is performed several times a year. For this lawn mowing, a person can actually move a lawn mower in a fairway, or a lawn or a wire can be used. A remote control method is used by using a lawnmower equipped with the remote control device of. This also applies to the operation of a cultivating machine such as a tractor and the operation of a cleaning robot in agricultural work, and a remote control device is exclusively used as a labor-saving means in this type of work.

[0003]

However, when remotely controlling a moving body, the operator operates the control device while observing the actual movement of the moving body with his / her eyes,
It is necessary to make a route decision and the operator needs to be in the vicinity. In addition, when it is necessary to trace the same point several times, it is necessary to rely on the driver's memory and senses, so it is difficult to reproduce accurately. Further, there is a problem that these operations cannot be performed at night when the operator cannot see them.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a moving body automatic driving apparatus which does not require a driver and can perform automatic driving day and night.

[0005]

A mobile automatic driving device according to the present invention includes at least a GPS positioning device and a wireless transmission / reception device, and a reference station placed at a known position in advance, and at least a GPS positioning device. And a wireless transmission / reception device, a direction detection device such as a gyroscope, and an operation control device, and an automatic driving unit mounted on a mobile body, and formed by the GPS positioning device of the reference station and the GPS positioning device of the automatic driving unit. The position installed in the automatic driving unit is controlled by using the position information of the moving body obtained from the differential GPS and the information of the direction of the moving body obtained from the direction detecting device. It is characterized in that the moving body is automatically driven along a driving map in which a driving route is described by information. Therefore, unlike the conventional remote control device, the operator does not need to be nearby. Further, since the differential GPS is used, it is possible to perform accurate automatic driving according to the driving map, and it is possible to accurately trace the same driving route.

Further, an automatic driving system equipped with a reference station having at least a GPS positioning device and a wireless transmission / reception device, at least a GPS positioning device, a wireless transmission / reception device, a direction detecting device such as a gyroscope, and an operation control device and mounted on a moving body. When the automatic operation of the moving body is started, the distance between the receiving antenna of the GPS positioning device of the reference station and the receiving antenna of the GPS positioning device of the automatic driving unit is set to 1 of the carrier frequency from the GPS satellite. / 2 wavelength or less and using the relative position information of the moving body obtained from the differential GPS that sets the reference station at an arbitrary point and the information of the direction of the moving body obtained from the direction detecting device, the operation control device Control the vehicle, and automatically move the moving body according to the driving map in which the driving route is described by the relative position information installed in the automatic driving unit. Characterized in that it. Therefore, automatic operation is possible even if there is no known point whose position is known in advance.

Further, the operation map installed in the automatic operation section is characterized in that it is wirelessly transmitted from the reference station. Depending on the usage situation of the device, the reference station can be simplified or downsized,
It suffices to select whether the automatic driving unit is simplified or downsized.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a device configuration which is an embodiment of a moving body automatic driving device of the present invention. In the figure, 100 is a reference station and 200 is an automatic driving unit provided in a moving body. The reference station 100 is equivalent to a reference station of the differential GPS, is placed at an existing point whose position is known in advance, receives positioning information from GPS satellites by the GPS positioning device 1, and measures its positioning error by the positioning error calculation device 2 Calculated by the wireless communication device 3
To the automatic driving unit 200.

The automatic driving unit 200 includes a GPS positioning device 1
1, a wireless transmission / reception device 12, and a gyro 13 are provided, and highly accurate position information based on the positioning information from the GPS positioning device 11 and the positioning error information received by the wireless transmission / reception device 12, and the traveling direction from the gyro 13. Is measured by the position / traveling direction measuring device 14 and output to the action pattern command device 15 and the course direction correcting device 17. Two
Reference numeral 0 denotes a driving map having position information indicating a movement range in which the moving body is automatically driven. When the driving map 20 is installed, the movement pattern creating device 21 creates a route point of the moving body based on the driving map 20. Then, the information is sent to the action pattern command device 15.

For example, a case where the moving body is a lawn mower and a fairway as shown by 30 in FIG. 2A is to be mowed will be described. In the fairway 30, obstacles that hinder the progress of the moving body are described. There are no objects, and the purpose is to mow the lawn, so the moving body must run all over the fairway. Therefore, the driving map 20 in which the driving route 31 is described is set in the action range similar to the fairway 30 as shown in FIG. 2B. Note that FIG.
2A and 2B show the same scale in the drawings, but FIG. 2A shows the actual fairway, and FIG. 2B shows the operation map 20 written in the information recording medium. There is.

When the driving map 20 is installed, the behavior pattern creating device 21 determines the route point of the moving body based on the driving map 20. That is, FIG.
As shown in (C), the moving body 32 is currently at the straight point a.
If you are facing the direction of, go forward to point a → point a
Turn 90 degrees right and move forward to point b → Turn right 90 degrees at point b and move forward to point c, and so on. The course point on the map 20 is determined and this information is sent to the action pattern command device 15. send.

The action pattern commanding device 15 tells the driving control device 16 the correct current position information from the position / travel direction measuring device 14 and the route point information on the map 20 from the action pattern creating device 21. Information such as forward movement, backward movement, stop, right turn, left turn, etc. is output, and the operation control device 16 drives the moving body drive unit in accordance with this information. Further, the moving position information of the moving body 32 is sequentially input to the course direction correcting device 17, and when the moving position information deviates from the driving route 31 from the behavior pattern creating device 21, the course direction correcting device 17 makes this deviation. And outputs the information for correcting the traveling direction to the operation control device 16,
Performs feedback control so as to control the moving body drive unit and trace the driving route 31.

The driving map 20 as shown in FIG. 2B may be created by writing the driving route on a map on the information medium showing the range of action with a personal computer or the like. May be operated and actually run, and may be created by the operation map creation device 22.

The device configuration shown in FIG. 1 is merely an embodiment, and the present invention provides position information of the moving body obtained from the differential GPS and information of the direction of the moving body obtained from the direction detecting device. It controls the operation control device using, and is a gist of a moving body automatic driving device that automatically drives the moving body along a driving map in which a driving route is written with position information installed in an automatic driving unit, For example, the driving map 20, the behavior pattern creating device 21, and the driving map creating device 22 may be provided on the side of the reference station 100 so that the transceiver 3 wirelessly transmits the route points.

In the above embodiment, the automatic driving section 20
Although the absolute position of the moving body is measured by 0, the relative position from the reference station 100 using so-called differential GPS may be detected. In this case, when starting the automatic operation of the moving body, the distance between the GPS receiving antenna of the reference station 100 and the GPS receiving antenna of the automatic driving unit 200 is set to 1/2 of the carrier frequency from the GPS satellite.
If the means for setting the wavelength to the wavelength or less is used, the integer wave number difference between the carrier phases received by the GPS positioning device of the reference station 100 and the automatic driving unit 200 can be automatically set to 0. Therefore, the installation position of the reference station 100 is known in advance. There is no need to be the point.

That is, it is necessary to determine the so-called integer ambiguity when the reference station 100 and the automatic operation unit 2 are used.
This is because it is necessary to determine which wavelength this path difference should be counted as, since the path difference between the path difference with 00 is usually more than 1/2 wavelength at the start of positioning. Is within 1/2 wavelength, the integer wave number difference can be determined to be 0, that is, the integer ambiguity can be determined to be 0, and it is not necessary to place the reference song 100 at a known point.

[0017]

As described above, the automatic vehicle driving apparatus of the present invention enables highly accurate automatic driving by using the differential GPS, and thus eliminates the need for an operator unlike the conventional remote control apparatus. Even if it is necessary to trace the same point several times, it can be reproduced accurately and can be used for night work.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a device configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 GPS positioning device 2 Positioning error calculation device 3 Transmission / reception device 11 GPS positioning device 12 Transmission / reception device 13 Gyro 14 Position / traveling direction measurement device 15 Action pattern command device 16 Driving control device 17 Driving direction correction device 20 Driving map 21 Action pattern creation device 22 Operation map creation device 100 Reference station 200 Automatic operation unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Agency reference number FI Technical display location G09B 29/10 G09B 29/10 A

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A reference station which has at least a GPS positioning device and a wireless transmission / reception device and which is placed at a known location in advance, at least a GPS positioning device, a wireless transmission / reception device, a direction detection device such as a gyroscope, and an operation control device. And a GPS unit of the base station and a GPS positioning device of the reference station.
The operation control device is controlled by using the position information of the moving body obtained from the differential GPS formed by the positioning device and the direction information of the moving body obtained from the direction detecting device, and the automatic driving unit is controlled. A moving body automatic driving device that automatically drives the moving body according to a driving map in which a driving route is described by installed position information. 2. A base station having at least a GPS positioning device and a wireless transmission / reception device, and at least a GPS positioning device, a wireless transmission / reception device, a direction detection device such as a gyroscope, and an operation control device, which are mounted on a moving body for automatic driving. And the GP of the above-mentioned reference station when starting the automatic operation of the moving body.
The distance between the receiving antenna of the S positioning device and the receiving antenna of the GPS positioning device of the autonomous driving section is set to 1/2 wavelength or less of the carrier frequency from the GPS satellite, and the reference station is obtained from the differential GPS which is placed at an arbitrary point. The relative position information of the moving body and the information of the direction of the moving body obtained from the direction detecting device is used to control the operation control device, and the driving route is set by the relative position information installed in the automatic driving unit. A vehicle automatic driving device that automatically drives the vehicle according to the driving map marked with. 3. The automatic vehicle driving system according to claim 1, wherein the driving map installed in the automatic driving unit is wirelessly transmitted from the reference station.