JPS62172282A - Apparatus for detecting position of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To acculately detect the position of a vehicle even under an adverse condition, by receiving horizontal revolving laser beam emitted from a reference point to an entire azimuth by a cylindrical entire azimuth beam receiver held horizontally and calculating the position of the vehicle from a beam receiving circular arc center angle and a vehicle posture angle with respect to a reference running direction. CONSTITUTION:Revolving laser beam emitted from a reference point A toward an entire horizontal direction is received by the cylindrical entire azimuth beam receiver with a radius (r) of the vehicle at a position O held horizontally and the center angle alpha formed by a beam receiving circular arc PR of which the middle point is Q is measured and a distance AO is calculated from the angle alphaand the radius (r). Angles alpha, delta formed by a vehicle azimuth direction and a straight line AQ and that made by a reference azimuth are measured and the azimuth angle beta at the point O based on the point A to the reference running direction is also calculated and determined. By this method, the position of a vehicle is accurately calculated even under such an adverse condition that a running route changes frequently or a geographical state is unfavorable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a vehicle position detection device that detects the position of a vehicle traveling in a limited travel area outdoors or in a rhinoceros.

[Conventional technology] Conventionally, various work vehicles and cargo transport vehicles have been used to travel along a free route within a limited travel area, either outdoors or indoors! 1!2 As a device to detect the position of a vehicle such as a car, (a) find the direction with respect to a reference point using a direction detector such as a rate gyro,
In addition, the distance traveled is calculated based on the rotational speed of the vehicle, and the position on a two-dimensional plane from a reference point is determined based on these directions and distance traveled, (b) Laser beams emitted from two or more reference points, There is a known method that determines the reception angle of a sound wave and uses this reception angle to determine the position on a two-dimensional plane from a reference point.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when the vehicle is used under conditions such as at a civil engineering work site, where the road the vehicle travels on changes frequently and the road surface is not flat, the problems described in (a) above may occur. A device having such a configuration has a problem in that it cannot accurately detect the position of the vehicle because errors in the traveling distance accumulate due to unevenness of the traveling road surface. Furthermore, the device having the configuration shown in (b) above has a problem in that it becomes difficult to set a plurality of reference points due to the topography of the road surface.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a vehicle position detection device that can accurately detect the position of a vehicle even in places where the traveling route changes frequently and the topographical conditions of the traveling road surface are poor. The purpose is to

[Means for Solving the Problems 1] The present invention provides a reference light generating device that is disposed at a reference point in a vehicle driving area and emits a laser beam parallel to a horizontal reference plane while rotating in all directions at a predetermined period. a cylindrical light receiving device mounted on the vehicle and configured to be able to receive the laser beam generated from the reference light generating device in all directions; and a posture for detecting the posture angle of the vehicle with respect to the reference traveling direction. Using the angle detection device and the reception time of the laser beam received by the light receiving device at an arbitrary driving position, the central angle of the circular arc/light receiving surface is determined, and then the reference point of the vehicle driving area is determined using this central angle and the radius of the light receiving device. an azimuth calculation device that calculates the distance from the vehicle and the orientation of the vehicle with respect to a reference point of the vehicle driving area based on the attitude angle detected by the attitude angle detection device and the center angle; It is constructed from a position calculation device that calculates the position of the vehicle on a two-dimensional plane with respect to the reference point based on the distance from the reference point.

[Effect 1 The laser beam emitted from the reference light generator is received by the light receiving device of a vehicle traveling at an arbitrary position, but at this time, the receiving surface of the laser beam is The cross section becomes arcuate. Therefore, the azimuth calculation device calculates the central angle from the reception time of the laser beam on this light receiving surface,
Furthermore, the distance from the reference point is calculated from the center angle and the radius of the light receiving device. Furthermore, the orientation of the vehicle with respect to the reference point is calculated based on the attitude angle of the vehicle and the center angle.

The position calculation device calculates the position of the vehicle on a two-dimensional plane based on the direction of the vehicle and the distance from the reference point calculated in this way.

[Example 1] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a vehicle control system to which a position detection device according to the present invention is applied. The ground station 1 is equipped with a reference light generator 10 that emits a laser beam parallel to a horizontal reference plane in all directions while rotating at a predetermined period.
It is installed at reference point A. In addition, vehicle driving area E
A cylindrical light receiving device 2 that receives the laser light from the reference light generating device 10 is installed in each of the plurality of vehicles AM traveling inside the vehicle.
0 is installed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the ground station 1 and the vehicle-mounted station 2. In addition to the reference light generator 10, the ground station 1 communicates with the vehicle-mounted station 2 position detection information, travel instruction information, etc. a wireless transmitting/receiving device 11 for transmitting and receiving information, a display device 12 for displaying the position of the vehicle in the driving area E, an information input device 13 such as a keyboard, and a computer 14 for controlling various parts such as the reference light issuing device 10. It is equipped with On the other hand, the vehicle-mounted station 2 includes, in addition to the light receiving device 2o, a direction detector 21 that detects the direction of the vehicle, a display device 22 that displays instruction information etc. from the ground station 1, and a It includes a wireless transmitting/receiving device 23 for transmitting and receiving detection information and driving instruction information, and a computer 24 for controlling each of these devices.

FIG. 3 is a new configuration diagram showing the configuration of the reference light generating device. A rotating t1 @ section 10d consisting of a motor 10b and a gear 10C is attached to the upper part of the fixed leg 10a, and the rotation is a horizontal rotation of 10d. A laser emitter 10e is located on the extension of the central axis.
is attached and by rotating the motor 10b,
It is configured so that the laser beam can be emitted while rotating at a constant speed in all directions parallel to a horizontal reference plane.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a light receiver @20 mounted on a vehicle. A cylindrical light receiver 20a is provided at the upper part and is supported by an attitude holding structure 20b.

The attitude holding device @20b controls the attitude so that the entire light receiving surface of the light receiver 20a is always parallel to the horizontal reference plane.Here, the length of four fixed legs are provided on the vehicle. By changing the angle based on the detection output of an inclinometer (not shown), the attitude of the entire light receiver 20a is maintained parallel to the horizontal reference plane regardless of the inclination of the vehicle. Note that the light receiving element W20a is composed of a large number of light receiving elements fixed at predetermined intervals on the surface of a cylinder.

In the above configuration, the vehicle position is calculated by the computer 24 of the vehicle-mounted station 2, and the calculation method will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the reference point A where the reference light generating device 10 is installed and one vehicle AM, and since the light receiving device 20 is designed to receive laser light in all directions. , the laser beam emitted from the reference light generator 8i1N10 can be received no matter where the wheel AM is located within the travel area. At this time, the light receiving device 2
The laser beam receiving surface at 0 has an arcuate cross section that opens facing the reference point A. Therefore, by detecting the angle that the line segment connecting the center point Q of this circular arc and the reference point A makes with the reference traveling direction, we can determine the direction i! with respect to the reference point A where the vehicle AM is located. ! l! 1 can be determined by geometric calculation.

In this case, since the radius r of the light receiver 20a is known, the central angle α of the circular arc can be determined from the light reception time t from the point P to R where the light reception intensity is the weakest.

That is, if the time required for one rotation of the reference light generating device 10 is defined as the king, the rotation angle θ of the reference light generating device 10 when the light receiving device 20 receives light for t time is θ=2πt/T.
...(1).

Furthermore, the relationship between the distance between the reference point A and the vehicle and the line segment PR connecting points P and R on the arcuate light receiving surface is PR=Dθ=D・(
2πt/T>...(2).

Furthermore, if the radius of the light receiver 20a is r and the angle of the arcuate light receiving surface is α, then PR= (2r (1-C03(Z)) ・=
(3) becomes.

Therefore, D-(T/2πt)・PR = (Tr/24t)・(2(1-cosα))””
...(4) becomes.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, the center of the arc PR is Q, the angle (that is, attitude angle) formed by the traveling direction of the vehicle and the line segment Q△ is φ, and the azimuth angle of the vehicle detected by the azimuth detector 21 is δ. , assuming that the direction in which the reference point A is extended in the X-axis direction is the reference running direction, the angle that the line segment QA forms with respect to the reference running direction, that is, the azimuth angle β where the vehicle exists with respect to the reference point A is β = δ + φ. −π/2 (5).

Therefore, the two-dimensional coordinate position of reference point A @A (X, V) = A
When <0.0>, the coordinates 0 (x, y) of the center point O of the light receiver 20a are X = D CO5β-Dcos (δ+φ-π/2)
y = [) sin β = [) sin (6 + φ - π/2
)...(6) becomes.

Therefore, if the center point O of the light receiver 20a is defined as the center point of the vehicle, the coordinate position indicated by the above X and y becomes the absolute position of the vehicle.

The attitude angle φ of the vehicle is the angle between the point where the line segment of the direction detected by the direction detector 21 intersects the circle representing the light emitter 20a and the center point Q of the arc PQR, as shown in FIG. It can be easily obtained by calculating. In this case, the azimuth angle δ detected by the azimuth detector 21 is based on, for example, "north" of north, south, east and west.

Furthermore, the position information calculated in the above manner by the computer 24 of the on-vehicle station 2 is transmitted to the computer 1 of the ground station 1.
The polling process from No. 4 is transmitted to the ground station via the radio transmitting/receiving device 11.23.

In this case, the calculation for determining the position of the vehicle is performed by transmitting the light receiving time t of the laser beam by the light receiving device 2o and the azimuth angle δ of the vehicle detected by the azimuth detector 21 to the ground station side. You can also do it with

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, a laser beam is emitted in all directions from a reference light generator installed at a reference point on the ground, and the reference light is determined based on the receiving direction of the laser beam on the vehicle. Since the position of the vehicle is determined relative to a point, the position of the vehicle can be accurately detected even if the travel route changes frequently and the topographical conditions are poor.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle control system to which this light is applied, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing details of the ground station and vehicle-mounted station in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a diagram of a reference light emitting device. A perspective view showing the details, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the details of the light receiving device,
FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams for explaining a method of calculating a vehicle position. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Ground station, 2... Vehicle-mounted station, 10... Reference destination optical device, 20... Light receiving device, 21... Direction detector,
24... Computer, 20b... Posture maintenance ■ structure. , ----- (5-・゛1 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A reference light generation device that is placed at a reference point in a vehicle driving area and emits a laser beam parallel to a horizontal reference plane while rotating in all directions at a predetermined period; a cylindrical light receiving device configured to be able to receive laser light generated from the device in all directions; an attitude angle detection device that detects the attitude angle of the vehicle with respect to a reference running direction; The central angle of the arc-shaped light receiving surface is determined based on the reception time of the laser beam received by the light receiving device, and the distance from the reference point of the vehicle running area is determined from this central angle and the radius of the light receiving device. an azimuth calculation device that calculates the orientation of the vehicle relative to a reference point in the vehicle driving area based on the detected attitude angle and the center angle; A vehicle position detection device comprising: a position calculation device for calculating a position on a two-dimensional plane; (2) The light receiving device is provided with an attitude holding mechanism that holds the entire light receiving surface horizontally with respect to a horizontal reference plane according to the inclination of the vehicle. Vehicle position detection device.