JPH09321522A - Antenna attitude control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an antenna attitude control system in which a position measurement error by the GPS is eliminated so as to direct an FPU paraboloidal antenna toward a relay vehicle accurately. SOLUTION: An FPU reception base station 3 measures its own position by a GPS device 9 to obtain a GPS position measurement error based on a difference between the position measurement information and absolute position information of the GPS antenna having been measured in advance accurately. Since the position measurement information from a relay vehicle 2 includes a similar GPS position measurement error, the error is corrected by a data processing section 7 and the attitude of the FPU paraboloidal antenna 4 is controlled based on the corrected position measurement information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to, for example, an FPU (Fi
eld Pick-Up Unit: Portable Radio Transmitter / Receiver) The present invention relates to an antenna attitude control system for controlling the attitude of a parabolic antenna installed in a receiving base station in a direction in which a mobile body equipped with an FPU is located.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FPUs are mounted on relay vehicles and relay helicopters used for relay broadcasting from the outside. Video signals, etc. taken at the relay site are once placed on microwaves in the 6 to 13 GHz band, and from the FPU to the summit, high-rise buildings,
It is sent to the FPU receiving base station installed at a high place such as a tower. The signal is transferred from such an FPU receiving base station to a broadcasting station TV studio through a fixed line and used for broadcasting. In this way, the FPU functions as a means for collecting outdoor program sources.

There is a possibility that an outdoor relay site is omnidirectional as viewed from the FPU receiving base station. Therefore, it becomes necessary to direct the parabolic antenna installed in the FPU receiving base station to the relay vehicle or the relay helicopter that is the signal transmission point. At present, GPS (Global Positioning System:
Methods using satellite navigation systems such as the Global Positioning System) have been devised. This method wirelessly transmits the position information of the relay vehicle, etc. obtained by measuring the latitude, longitude, and altitude by GPS mounted on the relay vehicle and the relay helicopter to the FPU receiving base station by radio, and the position information and the parabolic antenna It is characterized in that the antenna designated angle (vertical angle, horizontal angle of the parabolic antenna) is calculated from fixed position information, such as latitude, longitude, and altitude data, and control is performed to direct the antenna in the calculated direction.

The following are known techniques for controlling the attitude of an antenna mounted on a moving body using GPS. First, JP-A-5-3440
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 33, the control and monitoring device automatically controls the satellite transmission / reception antenna mounted on the moving body toward the satellite based on the position information input by GPS. Further, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-214774 is mounted on a moving body (robot) by using position information input by GPS and position information input by various sensors in a mutually complementary manner. The communication satellite transmitting / receiving antenna is corrected and controlled toward the satellite. Both of the above techniques are for controlling the attitude of the antenna toward the satellite, and both of them use the position information received by the GPS antenna as the position of the moving body to perform the attitude control.

By the way, it is known that the position information obtained by GPS includes errors due to various factors such as satellite orbit error, ionosphere or troposphere delay error. In the antenna attitude control for the satellite as described above, these errors do not have a great meaning because the distance to the target is large. On the other hand, since the control of the parabolic antenna of the FPU is the antenna control between the grounds, the above error has a great influence. Due to this error, there occurs a situation in which the accurate main lobe of the microwave cannot be caught, and particularly in the relay near the base station, the larger the error, the more difficult the accurate antenna direction adjustment becomes.

On the other hand, the technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-29279 discloses a bow based on position information input from GPS antennas installed at the bow and stern and information obtained by a tachometer. The direction is being measured. Even with this technology, the position information received by the GPS antenna is
The position information of the bow and stern is measured at the same error because it is received as the position of the moving body and is used for measuring the heading of the bow. Therefore, the error in this case does not have a great meaning for the measurement of the heading. Also,
The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-224703 is an attitude control technique in which an antenna mounted on a moving body is directed toward a fixed station on the ground. That is, after the antenna mounted on the vehicle is directed toward the fixed station and the direction is manually adjusted, the direction of the antenna is controlled based on the change in the attitude while detecting the attitude of the vehicle with a gyro or the like. With this technology,
The use of GPS is not considered, and the operator is supposed to manually make the first direction adjustment.

[0007]

As described above, the prior art does not consider the error in the position information obtained by GPS. This is because it is not necessary to consider the error caused by the satellite orbit error, the ionosphere or the troposphere delay error, or there is no concept of using GPS. However, in the attitude control of the FPU parabolic antenna, the antenna of the FPU receiving base station, which is a fixed station, must be accurately directed to the relay vehicle and the relay helicopter, and for that purpose, it is included in the position information itself obtained by the GPS described above. The error is a big obstacle.

[0008] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the error of the above-mentioned position information while utilizing the GPS and to obtain an accurate GPS.
It is to realize antenna attitude control by positioning.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An antenna attitude control system of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is provided with a mobile unit having means for generating and transmitting its own positioning information by GPS, and an antenna pointing to this mobile unit. And a fixed station provided with a first antenna drive means for controlling the attitude of the. In this configuration, the antenna drive means compares the positioning means for generating the positioning information of the fixed station by GPS with the positioning information of the fixed station generated by this positioning means and the absolute position information of the GPS antenna for GPS at the time of positioning. Positioning information correction means for deriving an error and correcting the positioning information of the mobile body received via the antenna based on the derived GPS error, and the amount of drive of the antenna for the corrected positioning information of the mobile body. Drive amount correction means for converting the data into correction data, and the posture of the antenna is controlled by the converted drive amount correction data.

Further, another antenna attitude control system of the present invention controls the attitude of a mobile body equipped with means for generating and transmitting its own positioning information using GPS and an antenna for pointing the mobile body. It is composed of a plurality of fixed stations provided with the second antenna driving means, and a control station provided with control means for uniformly controlling the second antenna driving means in each fixed station. Then, the control means compares the positioning means for generating positioning information of the control station by GPS with the positioning information of the control station generated by this positioning means and the absolute position information of the GPS antenna to derive the GPS error at the time of positioning. At the same time, positioning information correction means for correcting the positioning information of the moving body received via the antenna based on the derived GPS error,
Drive amount correction means for converting the corrected positioning information of the moving body into drive amount correction data for the antenna,
The antenna driving means is configured to control the attitude of the antenna based on the driving amount correction data.

The measurement information correction means derives the error in distance and angle from the difference between the absolute position information and the positioning information of the fixed station or the control station, and adds these errors to the positioning information of the moving body. By doing so, the positioning information of the moving body is corrected. The absolute position information of the GPS antenna may be held in memory beforehand and used at any time.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an antenna attitude control system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The antenna attitude control system 1 is composed of a relay vehicle 2 which is a moving body and an FPU receiving base station 3 which is a fixed station.

The relay vehicle 2 is equipped with an FPU 21 and transmits a video signal from an outdoor relay site to the FPU receiving base station 3. The relay vehicle 2 is equipped with a GPS device (indicated as GPS (1) in the figure) 22 and measures the position information of the relay vehicle 2 at regular time intervals. The latest position information of the relay vehicle 2 is always sent to the FPU receiving base station 3 wirelessly via the transmitting unit 23.

At the FPU receiving base station 3, the FP of the relay vehicle 2
The video signal sent from U21 is received by the FPU parabolic antenna 4 and transferred to the broadcasting station (not shown) through the fixed line 12. The FPU receiving base station 3 is also provided with an antenna control device 5, and a data receiving unit 6 for receiving the position information sent from the relay vehicle 2 and rotation control data of the FPU parabolic antenna from this position information. A data processing unit 7 for calculating, an antenna driving unit 10 for driving the FPU parabolic antenna 4 based on the calculated rotation control data, and an antenna monitoring unit 11 for monitoring the movement of the antenna during driving.

One characteristic part of this antenna attitude control system 1 is that the antenna control device 5 is a GPS device (indicated as GPS (2) in the figure) 9 and the GPS antenna of the GPS device 9 that has been accurately positioned in advance. The ROM 8 is a memory that holds the absolute position information of. The data processing unit 7 has a function of constantly inputting the latest position information measured by the GPS device 9 and inputting the absolute position information described above from the ROM 8 and correcting the GPS positioning error based on the input information. are doing.

The principle of error correction in the antenna attitude control system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
FIG. 2A shows a state of GPS positioning in the FPU receiving base station 3, and FIG. 2B shows a state of positioning in the relay vehicle 2. In the figure, y is position information measured by the GPS device 22 of the relay vehicle 2. As already mentioned,
This position information includes a positioning error. Also, w
Is the position information measured by the GPS device 9 of the FPU receiving base station 3. Simultaneously positioned y and w have similar positioning error. On the other hand, x is the absolute position information of the GPS antenna recorded in the ROM 8. Therefore, the error distance L and the error angle θ at the time of positioning are obtained from the difference between x and y. By applying the error distance L and the error angle θ to y, accurate position information z of the relay vehicle 2 with the error removed can be obtained.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing details of the data processing unit 7. The latest positioning information of the GPS device 9 and the absolute position information of the GPS antenna recorded in the ROM 8 are input to the comparator 71, and the difference is output to the corrector 72 as error information θ and L. The corrector 72 corrects the positioning position information y based on the positioning position information y from the relay vehicle 2 received by the data receiving unit 6 and the error information θ and L obtained from the comparator 71 to obtain an accurate position. Calculate the position information z,
This is output to the antenna indicator 73. The antenna indicator 73 has corrected position information (longitude, latitude, altitude),
Based on the position information (longitude, latitude, altitude) of the FPU parabolic antenna 4, the antenna vertical angle and the antenna horizontal angle are calculated, the information is stored, and the drive amount correction data is output to the antenna drive unit 10.

The antenna drive unit 10 controls the attitude of the FPU parabolic antenna 4 based on the drive amount correction data and directs the antenna toward the relay vehicle 2. Antenna monitoring unit 11
Inputs the current angle information of the antenna from the FPU parabolic antenna 4 and outputs the angle information to the antenna driving unit 10 and the data processing unit 7. The antenna drive unit 10 stops the posture control at the time when the drive amount correction data and the current angle information of the antenna match, and outputs the stop information to the antenna monitoring unit 11.

The antenna monitoring unit 11 outputs the antenna angle information at the time of stop to the antenna indicator 73 of the data processing unit 7. The antenna indicator 73 compares the stored horizontal and vertical angle information of the FPU parabolic antenna with the current angle information of the antenna, and when the both angle information matches and the antenna stop information is input, the direction adjustment ends. .

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an antenna attitude control system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In actual relay broadcasting, a relay vehicle equipped with an FPU, a relay helicopter, or the like transmits video information and the like from a plurality of relay sites instead of one unit. Further, FPU receiving base stations are also provided in various places by dividing the receiving area.
All of the plurality of FPU receiving base stations have G for error correction.
Installing a PS device is redundant. In other words, the GPS that holds the absolute position information only needs to be at one location. Therefore, in this embodiment, the antenna attitude control system 60 is configured to include a plurality of FPU receiving base stations, a plurality of relay vehicles, and the like.

In the antenna attitude control system 60, only the part of the antenna control device 5 of the first embodiment, which is related to the rotation operation of the antenna, is received by the FPU receiving base station 30.
The other control parts are installed in one place such as a building of the broadcasting station 50. Broadcast vehicle 2 equipped with FPU21
Transmits a video signal or the like from the relay site to the FPU parabolic antenna 4 of the FPU receiving base station 30, while
The position information measured by the S device 22 is transmitted to the control information generation device 51 of the broadcasting station 50 via the transmission unit 23.

The relay helicopter 40 also transmits the video signal to the FPU.
While transmitting to the receiving base station 31, the GPS positioning data is transmitted to the control information generating device 51. The relay helicopter 40, like the relay vehicle 2,
The FPU receiving base station 31 has a PU and GPS, and the FPU receiving base station 31 has the same configuration as the FPU receiving base station 30, but the description is omitted for simplification of the drawing. The video signal received by the FPU parabolic antenna 4 is transferred to the studio of the broadcasting station 50 via a fixed line (not shown).

The control information generating device 51, which functions as a control means, receives the received position information y of the relay vehicle 2 and
The error is corrected from the positioning information w of the GPS device 9 installed in the building of the broadcasting station 50 and the absolute position information x of the GPS antenna recorded in the ROM 8 to calculate the accurate position information z of the relay vehicle 2. . The data processing unit 7 has the configuration and functions shown in FIG. 3, as in the case of being used in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the part related to the rotating operation of the antenna, that is, the second antenna driving means is the FP.
The U receiving base station 30 includes an antenna driving unit 10 and an antenna monitoring unit 11.

The drive amount correction data generated by the control information generating device 51 is transmitted via the control information transmitting device 52.
It is sent to the antenna drive unit 10. The current antenna angle information output from the antenna monitoring unit 11 is also sent to the data processing unit 7 via the control information transmission device 52. The other points are not different from the antenna attitude control system 1 according to the first embodiment.

In the antenna attitude control system 60 of the present embodiment configured as described above, the attitude control of the FPU parabolic antennas 4 of the plurality of FPU receiving base stations 30, 31, ... This can be performed by one control information generation device 51 having a correction function, and the configuration is adapted to the actual condition of relay broadcasting.

Although the present invention is as described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiment, and the configuration can be changed without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, in each of the embodiments, the configuration in which the positioning information of the relay vehicle 2 or the like is transmitted to each data receiving unit 6 separately from the video signal is adopted, but this is transmitted by being included in the video signal transmitted by the FPU. It may be one. Further, although the transmission path between the control information transmission device 51 and each FPU receiving base station 30 shown in the second embodiment is also not particularly shown, it is fixed to transfer the video signal from the FPU parabolic antenna 4. It is also possible to use the line for transmitting control information.

[0027]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the GPS error at the time of positioning is calculated by comparing the position information measured at the fixed point with the absolute position information in the memory, and this error is calculated. Since the positioning information is corrected by the moving body based on the above, the antenna can be correctly directed to the moving body. As a result, it is possible to eliminate the error in the position information while using the GPS and realize the antenna attitude control by the accurate GPS positioning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the principle of error correction according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block configuration diagram showing details of a data processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,60 Antenna attitude control system 2 Relay vehicle 3,30,31 FPU receiving base station 4 FPU parabolic antenna 5 Antenna control device 7 Data processing unit 8 ROM 9,22 GPS device 21 FPU 23 Transmitting unit 40 Relay helicopter 50 Broadcasting station 51 Control information generation device 52 Control information transmission device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A mobile unit having means for generating and transmitting its own positioning information by GPS, and a fixed station having first antenna driving means for controlling the attitude of an antenna pointing to the mobile unit. The antenna driving means compares the positioning information of the fixed station generated by the GPS with the positioning information of the fixed station generated by the positioning means and the absolute position information of the GPS antenna to measure the GPS at the time of positioning. Positioning information correction means for deriving an error and correcting the positioning information of the mobile body received via the antenna based on the derived GPS error, and the amount of drive of the antenna for the corrected positioning information of the mobile body. Drive amount correction means for converting into correction data, and is configured to control the posture of the antenna according to the converted drive amount correction data. Antenna attitude control system. 2. A plurality of moving bodies, each of which has a means for generating and transmitting its own positioning information using GPS and a second antenna driving means for controlling the attitude of an antenna pointing to the moving body. A fixed station and a control station provided with a control means for uniformly controlling the second antenna driving means in each fixed station, wherein the control means includes a positioning means for generating positioning information of the control station by the GPS. The positioning information of the control station generated by the positioning means is compared with the absolute position information of the GPS antenna to derive the GPS error during positioning, and the positioning information of the mobile body received via the antenna is derived. And a drive amount correction unit for converting the corrected positioning information of the moving body into the drive amount correction data of the antenna. Na driving means, the antenna attitude control system characterized by being configured to control the attitude of the antenna by the driving amount correction data. 3. The measurement information correction means derives distance and angle errors from the difference between the absolute position information and the positioning information of the fixed station or the control station, and adds these errors to the positioning information of the moving body. The antenna attitude control system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the positioning information of the moving body is corrected by doing so. 4. The antenna attitude control system according to claim 1, wherein the measurement information correction means includes a memory that holds the absolute position information of the GPS antenna so that the absolute position information can be read at any time.