3337 results about "Vehicle positioning" patented technology

A navigation and control system including a sensor configured to locate objects in a predetermined field of view from a vehicle. The sensor has an emitter configured to repeatedly scan a beam into a two-dimensional sector of a plane defined with respect to a first predetermined axis of the vehicle, and a detector configured to detect a reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects. The sensor includes a panning mechanism configured to pan the plane in which the beam is scanned about a second predetermined axis to produce a three dimensional field of view. The navigation and control system includes a processor configured to determine the existence and location of the objects in the three dimensional field of view based on a position of the vehicle and a time between an emittance of the beam and a reception of the reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects.

An improved fully-coupled vehicle positioning process and system thereof can substantially solve the problems encountered in global positioning system-only and inertial navigation system-only, such as loss of global positioning satellite signal, sensibility to jamming and spoofing, and inertial solution's drift over time, in which the velocity and acceleration from an inertial navigation processor are used to aid the code and carrier phase tracking of the global positioning system satellite signals, so as to enhance the performance of the global positioning and inertial integration system, even in heavy jamming and high dynamic environments. The improved fully-coupled GPS / IMU vehicle positioning system includes an IMU (inertial measurement unit) and a GPS processor which are connected to a central navigation processor to produce navigation solution that is output to an I / O (input / output) interface.

A fully-coupled vehicle positioning method and system with differential GPS substantially solves problems encountered in either the global positioning system-only or the inertial novigation system-only, such as loss of global positioning satellite signal, sensitivity to jamming and spoofing, and an inertial solution's drift over time, in which the velocity and acceleration from an inertial navigation processor of the integrated GPS / INS system are used to aid the code and carrier phase tracking of the global positioning system satellite signals, so as to enhance the performance of the global positioning and inertial integration system, even in heavy jamming and high dynamic environments. To improve the accuracy of the integrated GPS / INS navigation system, phase measurements are used and the idea of the differential GPS is employed. A master-slave relative positioning scheme is invented and is effective for high accuracy formation driving and flight.

The invention provides systems and methods for connecting an electric or hybrid electric vehicle to a charging station. Automated charging and docking processes may be provided. In some embodiments, a vehicle arrival and position may be detected. The vehicle may be charged with a charging arm and some automated vehicle positioning may occur. The vehicle may be charged and released. Fault detection may occur.

Monitoring an actionable metric associated with a fleet is disclosed. A first data set is received that includes fleet management data for the fleet. A second data set is received that includes field service data associated with the fleet. A third data set is received that includes vehicle diagnostic data and / or vehicle positioning data. A performance indicator is calculated using data elements associated with at least two of the three data sets. An actionable metric is reported, based upon the performance indicator.

This invention relates to a system and method to generate a private, auditable, evidentiary quality record of the location-history of an asset or person. This invention addresses ten critical improvements over existing systems that are proposed or used for metering for payment services for tolling roads, parking or pay-as-you-drive insurance, namely, cost-effective location accuracy in harsh signal environments, evidentiary assurance of location estimation, handling of dynamic and stationary positioning in a single device, high-ratio compression for a set of stationary positions in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a dynamic tracklog in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a set of asset motion behaviors, a method of remote device health check, including anti-tampering, removal of residual price assignment errors, anonymous use without on-board maps, and a method of deconsolidating payments to multiple payees with multiple payment regimes. This system can be applied to road-pricing, congestion-pricing, metered-by-the-minute parking and pay-as-you-drive insurance, incorporating privacy management, and legal admissibility of the evidentiary record. This same device can also be applied to vehicular fleets, military ordinance, or other location audits for assets whether motorized or not, as might be needed in evidence of contract fulfillment or other forms of non-realtime geofencing audits.

The invention relates to an indoor autonomous navigation method for a micro unmanned aerial vehicle, belonging to the technical field of autonomous navigation of micro unmanned aerial vehicles. The method comprises the following steps: estimating the motion state of the micro unmanned aerial vehicle based on an RGB-D camera and an MEMS inertial sensor; performing real-time three-dimensional environment modeling based on fusion of the RGB-D camera and the MEMS inertial sensor; and performing real-time trusted path planning and path tracking control, implementing position control and attitude control through the three steps, and guiding the unmanned aerial vehicle to track the preset path to fly. According to the method, the unmanned aerial vehicle positioning accuracy and the motion state estimation accuracy are improved; the indoor autonomous environmental perception capability of the micro unmanned aerial vehicle is improved; according to the generated path, the positioning accuracy can be effectively guaranteed on the basis that the path feasibility is met; and the autonomy capability of the micro unmanned aerial vehicle is effectively improved.

An industrial vehicle positioning system and method are presented. The system includes a first imaging subsystem for acquiring a first indicia image and a second imaging subsystem for acquiring a second indicia image. An image analysis subsystem is configured for analyzing the first indicia image to acquire a first location designation, and for analyzing the second indicia image to acquire a second location designation. A processor is configured for determining the location of the industrial vehicle based upon the first location designation and the second location designation.

A method for navigating an autonomous vehicle along a desired path is described. The method includes manually navigating the vehicle along the desired path, measuring an environment in the vicinity of the desired path, during the manual navigation, using at least one sensor affixed to the vehicle, storing the environmental measurements as a programmed path within the vehicle, and subsequently utilizing an algorithm, the stored environmental measurements, and additional environmental measurements, to navigate the vehicle along the programmed path.

A real-time integrated vehicle positioning method and system with differential GPS can substantially solve the problems encountered in either the global positioning system-only or the inertial navigation system-only, such as loss of global positioning satellite signal, sensitivity to jamming and spoofing, and an inertial solution's drift over time. In the present invention, the velocity and acceleration from an inertial navigation processor of the integrated GPS / INS system are used to aid the code and carrier phase tracking of the global positioning system satellite signals, so as to enhance the performance of the global positioning and inertial integration system, even in heavy jamming and high dynamic environments. To improve the accuracy of the integrated GPS / INS navigation system, phase measurements are used and the idea of the differential GPS is employed. However, integer ambiguities have to be resolved for high accuracy positioning. Therefore, in the present invention a new on-the-fly ambiguity resolution technique is disclosed to resolve double difference integer ambiguities. The real-time fully-coupled GPS / IMU vehicle positioning system includes an IMU (inertial measurement unit), a GPS processor, and a data link which are connected to a central navigation processor to produce a navigation solution that is output to an I / O (input / output) interface.

A method and system for alerting a driver of a commercial vehicle or private vehicle, such as a truck or automobile, of an approaching emergency vehicle, such as a police or fire vehicle, and vice versa. The system includes a navigation information system in each vehicle, a transmitter in the second vehicle, a receiver in the first vehicle, a processing system, and a warning system in the first vehicle. Each navigation information system provides data that describe the geographic position and speed of the vehicle. The receiver in the first vehicle receives the navigation information transmitted by the second vehicle. The processor and associated electronics in the first vehicle determines the position and direction of travel of the second vehicle relative to the first vehicle. The warning system in the first vehicle provides a suitable indication to alert the driver if it is determined that the two vehicles are likely to collide.

The illustrative embodiments provide a computer program product for controlling a vehicle. In an illustrative embodiment, a computer program product is comprised of a computer recordable media having computer usable program code for identifying a dynamic condition. When the dynamic condition is identified, computer usable program code using a knowledge base controls the vehicle.

A location system for locating a parked vehicle, a method for providing a location of a parked vehicle and a personal wireless device including the location system or method. In one embodiment, the personal wireless device includes (1) a positioning system, (2) a user interface and (3) a parked vehicle location system coupled to the positioning system and the user interface. The parked vehicle location system includes (3A) a parking determiner configured to automatically ascertain and store at least one parking event of a vehicle associated with the personal wireless device and (3B) a parking event retriever, coupled to the parking determiner, configured to present the at least one stored parking event.

In a mobile control node system and method for a vehicle (630), the mobile control node (624) can interact, via a bi-directional radio link (642), with a transceiver processor unit (628) in the vehicle. The transceiver processor unit (628) is connected to a vehicle control system (120) and allows the mobile control node (624) to function as an input and output node on a vehicle control network (632), allowing remote control of the vehicle and providing functions such as remote or passive keyless entry. Additionally, the system provides a vehicle location function wherein the range and bearing between the mobile control node (624) and the vehicle (630) can he determined and displayed on the mobile control node (624). The range and bearing are calculated by determining the range between the mobile control node (624) and vehicle (630), preferably using a time of flight methodology, and by processing the travel distance of the mobile control node and compass data in order to triangulate the position of the vehicle (630) relative to the mobile control node (624).

A method and system for localizing a vehicle in a digital map includes generating GPS coordinates of the vehicle on the traveled road and retrieving from a database a digital map of a region traveled by the vehicle based on the location of the GPS coordinates. The digital map includes a geographic mapping of a traveled road and registered roadside objects. The registered roadside objects are positionally identified in the digital map by longitudinal and lateral coordinates. Roadside objects in the region traveled are sensed by the vehicle. The sensed roadside objects are identified on the digital map. A vehicle position on the traveled road is determined utilizing coordinates of the sensed roadside objects identified in the digital map. The position of the vehicle is localized in the road as a function of the GPS coordinates and the determined vehicle position utilizing the coordinates of the sensed roadside objects.

The invention includes the car borne intelligent control device and the monitoring management system (center). The car borne intelligent control device consists of the vehicle location unit, the unitfor monitoring vehicles, the mobile display terminal and the emergence process unit. The monitoring manage system is composed of two paths digital mobile communication, two paths telephone lines and one computer server. The information in the vehicle location unit and the monitoring vehicles unit of the car borne intelligent control device is processed by the data processor of the control device.The processed information is displayed on the mobile display terminal and the station is reported automatically by using voice. Also the processed information is sent to the monitoring management center through digital mobile communication network.

An improved fully-coupled vehicle positioning method and system with differential GPS can substantially solve the problems encountered in either the global positioning system-only or the inertial navigation system-only, such as loss of global positioning satellite signal, sensitivity to jamming and spoofing, and an inertial solution's drift over time. In the present invention, the velocity and acceleration from an inertial navigation processor of the integrated GPS / INS system are used to aid the code and carrier phase tracking of the global positioning system satellite signals, so as to enhance the performance of the global positioning and inertial integration system, even in heavy jamming and high dynamic environments. To improve the accuracy of the integrated GPS / INS navigation system, phase measurements are used and the idea of the differential GPS is employed. A master-slave relative positioning scheme is invented and is effective for high accuracy formation driving and flight.

The illustrative embodiments provide a method for controlling a vehicle. In an illustrative embodiment, a dynamic condition is identified and the vehicle is controlled using a knowledge base comprising a fixed knowledge base and a learned knowledge base.

An automatic vehicle location (AVL) system where vehicles are provided with navigation devices (104) for which destination data may be transmitted from the AVL base computer system (102).

The invention relates to a dynamic parking navigation system used at the inner part of a parking lot. The dynamic parking navigation system is formed by the connection of an on-vehicle parking navigation terminal, a parking lot navigation server and a wireless parking space detecting network through wireless communication. The wireless parking space detecting network is formed by the connection of parking space detectors through wireless communication, and the parking space detectors are respectively arranged on parking spaces. The on-vehicle parking navigation terminal is arranged in a vehicle to be parked. By integrating the functions of detecting as well as collecting the parking spaces in the parking lot and positioning as well as navigating the vehicle to be parked, the dynamic parking navigation system thoroughly solves the problems of difficult parking space finding and difficult parking at the inner part of the parking lot, and meanwhile is convenient for a parking user to quickly as well as accurately find the target parking space. With full-automatic and intelligent navigation, the dynamic parking navigation system is of great significance in increasing the parking efficiency of the large-sized parking lot particularly the indoor parking lot, shortening the finding as well as waiting time of the user, and improving the utilizing rate of the parking spaces.

This invention relates to a system and method to generate a private, auditable, evidentiary quality record of the location-history of an asset or person. This invention addresses ten critical improvements over existing systems that are proposed or used for metering for payment services for tolling roads, parking or pay-as-you-drive insurance, namely, cost-effective location accuracy in harsh signal environments, evidentiary assurance of location estimation, handling of dynamic and stationary positioning in a single device, high-ratio compression for a set of stationary positions in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a dynamic tracklog in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a set of asset motion behaviors, a method of remote device health check, including anti-tampering, removal of residual price assignment errors, anonymous use without on-board maps, and a method of deconsolidating payments to multiple payees with multiple payment regimes. This system can be applied to road-pricing, congestion-pricing, metered-by-the-minute parking and pay-as-you-drive insurance, incorporating privacy management, and legal admissibility of the evidentiary record. This same device can also be applied to vehicular fleets, military ordinance, or other location audits for assets whether motorized or not, as might be needed in evidence of contract fulfillment or other forms of non-realtime geofencing audits.

The invention relates to a real-time information processing method in bus dynamic dispatching, which is specially used for dynamic dispatching of bus single or area multi-line of the ground. The real-time information comprises vehicle positioning information and passenger flow information; acquiring equipment comprises a GPS vehicle-mounted terminal and an IC card POS machine terminal; a processing method comprises the following steps: acquiring and transmitting real-time information; processing and preprocessing real-time information; carrying out secondary processing to the acquired data; taking relevant technologies of ITS and the computer of the bus vehicle positioning technology, the bus passenger flow acquisition technology, the network communication technology, WebGIS and the like as support, acquiring real-time information of ground bus line operation, carrying out processing on the real-time information, calculating operating state of vehicle delay time, section passenger flow, load factor and the like, and carrying out vehicle bunching recognition; and using a Kalman filtering model to predict the arrival time and delay time of the bus vehicle, and providing decision basis for dynamic dispatching measures.

A position keeping system, useable to maintain a position of a vehicle in a vehicle formation, to keep all formation members flying at a specified velocity and altitude, and to perform commanded maneuvers, determines guidance corrections based on a track state referenced to a leader or a virtual leader of the formation and on a formation position error indicating the error in the position of the vehicle in the formation. The guidance corrections are required so as to maintain the vehicles in the formation.

Described are a method and a system for localization of a vehicle. The method includes the acquisition of SPR images of a subsurface region along a vehicle track. Acquired SPR images are compared to SPR images previously acquired for a subsurface region that at least partially overlaps the subsurface region along the vehicle track. In some embodiments, the comparison includes an image correlation procedure. Location data for the vehicle are determined based in part on location data for the SPR images previously acquired for the second subsurface region. Location data can be used to guide the vehicle along a desired path. The relatively static nature of features in the subsurface region provides the method with advantages over other sensor-based navigation systems that may be adversely affected by weather conditions, dynamic features and time-varying illumination. The method can be used in a variety of applications, including self-driving automobiles and autonomous platforms.

A modular device, system and associated method, used to enhance the quality and output speed of any generic GPS engine is provided. The modular device comprises an inertial subsystem based on a solid state gyroscope having a plurality of accelerometers and a plurality of angular rate sensors designed to measure linear acceleration and rotation rates around a plurality of axes. The modular inertial device may be placed in the data stream between a standard GPS receiver and a guidance device to enhance the accuracy and increase the frequency of positional solutions. Thus, the modular inertial device accepts standard GPS NMEA input messages from the source GPS receiver, corrects and enhances the GPS data using computed internal roll and pitch information, and produces an improved, more accurate, NMEA format GPS output at preferably 2 times the positional solution rate using GPS alone. The positional solution frequency using the present invention may increase to as much as 5 times that obtained using GPS alone. Moreover, the modular inertial device may assist when the GPS signal is lost for various reasons. If used without GPS, the modular inertial device may be used to define, and adjust, a vehicle's orientation on a relative basis. The modular inertial device and architecturally partitioned system incorporated into an existing GPS system may be applied to navigation generally, including high-precision land-based vehicle positioning, aerial photography, crop dusting, and sonar depth mapping to name a few applications.

A method and apparatus of vehicle positioning uses map matching as feedback for an integrated navigation system where a map and navigation system is coupled with an inertial navigation system (INS) using low-precision vehicle sensors when the vehicle passes through a tunnel or other area suffering from GPS signal loss. The method and apparatus operates to detect whether the vehicle has reached an entry point of a tunnel, and if so, immediately starts a map matching operation to match the current vehicle position with a road link of the tunnel. The current position determined by the map matching operation is feedbacked to an integration Kalman filter thereby correcting errors caused by the vehicle sensors. The method and apparatus resumes the normal navigation operation including GPS navigation as soon as it detects that the vehicle is out of the tunnel.

The invention discloses a parking lot control system. The parking lot control system comprises an entrance detection terminal, a vehicle guide device, an information storage device, a guide prompt device, a vehicle positioning device, a guide route correcting device and a plurality of parking space detection terminals. The entrance detection terminal is used for obtaining vehicle information of vehicles entering a parking lot in the position of the entrance of the parking lot. The information storage device is used for storing preset vehicle information and the vehicle information obtained through the entrance detection terminal, wherein each piece of preset vehicle information corresponds to a parking space. The vehicle positioning device is used for positioning vehicles running on passageways inside the parking lot. The vehicle guide device is used for generating guide routes between the current positions of vehicles and the target parking spaces according to the preset vehicle information. The guide route correcting device is used for correcting the guide routes. The guide prompt device is used for guiding vehicles to run to the parking spaces according to the guide routes. According to the parking lot control system, vehicles can be guided to smoothly run into the parking spaces in the parking lot, parking time is shortened, and the utilization efficiency of the parking spaces in the parking lot is improved.

The invention provides a road sign drawing and vehicle positioning method and system for automatic drive.Through cooperation use of a binocular camera and laser radar, a high-precision road surface characteristic map is generated semi-automatically, edge points of a road sign on an image acquired by the binocular camera are detected through the binocular camera, the edge points are matched with sampling points of a line segment on the high-precision road surface characteristic map, a Kalman filtering positioning model is used for optimization to find out optimal matching, and then vehicle positioning is completed.Through the road sign drawing and vehicle positioning method and system for automatic drive, positioning is stable, robustness is high, and the influence of shielding and reflection by vegetation barriers is avoided; meanwhile, compared with a radar sensor, the binocular camera is more suitable for commercial popularization due to price, low in price and suitable for civil use.

The invention relates to a vehicle comprehensive information system based on the third-generation (3G) mobile communication, comprising a server and a vehicle-loaded terminal communicating with each other via a 3G network. The vehicle-loaded terminal comprises a vehicle bus interface module, a 3G mobile communication modem module and an embedded-type control module, and the server comprises an information receiving module, an information storage module, a function module and an information issuing module. The vehicle bus interface module is accessed to an inside control bus of a vehicle through an OBD interface, obtains the vehicle running information and transmits the information to the embedded-type control module; the embedded-type control module obtains and processes the vehicle running information and communicates interactively with the server through the 3G mobile communication modem module connected with the embedded-type control module; the information reception module receives the information of the vehicle-loaded terminal transmitted by the 3G network; the information storage module stores the information of the information receiving module and the application information; the function module is used for realizing the application functions of vehicle positioning, map navigation, real-time path plan, theft prevention of vehicles and the like; and the information issuing module is used for transmitting information provided by the server to the vehicle-loaded terminal.