Autonomous mower navigation system and method
AssigneeMTD Products Inc
InventorsChristopher J. Churavy, Edward J. Blanchard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for autonomous mower navigation includes receiving a return-to-zero encoded signal including a pseudo-random sequence, transforming the received signal to a non-return-to-zero representation, digitally sampling the non-return-to-zero signal representation in a time domain, filtering the sampled signal utilizing a reference data array based on the return-to-zero encoded signal to produce a filter output, and determining a location of the autonomous mower relative to a defined work area based on an evaluation of the filter output.
Claims26
A computer implemented method for autonomous mower navigation, comprising:
- receiving a return-to-zero encoded signal including a neutral condition between bits and comprising at least one pseudo-random sequence, wherein the neutral condition comprises a value halfway between a condition representing a 1 bit and a condition representing a 0 bit;
- transforming the received signal to a non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation, wherein the non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation comprises a binary code in which binary 0's are represented by a negative voltage and binary 1's are represented by a positive voltage, and wherein the non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation does not include a neutral condition;
- digitally sampling the non-return-to-zero signal representation in a time domain;
- filtering the sampled signal utilizing a reference data array based on the return-to-zero encoded signal to produce a filter output;
- and
- determining a location of the autonomous mower relative to a defined work area based on an evaluation of the filter output.
A system for autonomous mower navigation, comprising:
- at least one inductive sensor for receiving a return-to-zero encoded signal comprising at least one pseudo-random sequence transmitted over a wire defining a work area, wherein the return-to-zero encoded signal includes a neutral condition between bits, the neutral condition comprising a value halfway between a condition representing a 1 bit and a condition representing a 0 bit;
- a processing component in communication with the at least one sensor and for receiving the signal data, wherein the processing component is configured to
- i. transform the signal data to a non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation of the signal data, wherein the non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation comprises a binary code in which binary 0's are represented by a negative voltage and binary 1's are represented by a positive voltage, and wherein the non-return-to-zero phase-shift keyed representation does not include a neutral condition;
- ii. digitally sample the non-return-to-zero signal representation in a time domain;
- and
- a filter in communication with the processing component for filtering the sampled signal utilizing a reference data array based on the return-to-zero encoded signal to produce a filter output, wherein the processing component receives the filter output and is configured to determine a location of the autonomous mower relative to the defined work area based on an evaluation of the filter output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.