System and method for avoiding utility strikes by construction equipment
AssigneeRodRadar Ltd.
InventorsYossi Gershon, Ronen Globinsky, John Francis Roulston, Moshe Dalman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A GPR (ground penetrating radar) system includes a digging machine having a bucket, a GPR unit and a post-processing unit. The GPR unit is mounted on the bucket and includes at least one GPR antenna and a data processor. Both the at least one antenna and the data processor are mounted within the bucket. The data processor detects a presence of a hazard during a progressive removal of layers of soil. The post-processing unit is installed in a cabin of the digging machine and provides an alert when the data processor detects the hazard during the removal of soil.
Claims28
A GPR (ground penetrating radar) system comprising:
- a GPR unit mounted on a bucket of a digging machine, said GPR unit comprising at least one GPR antenna mounted on and/or through a ground facing base of said bucket and a data processor mounted within an upper portion of said bucket, said data processor to detect a presence of a hazard during a progressive removal of layers of soil;
- and
- a post-processing unit installable in a cabin of said digging machine to provide an alert when said data processor detects said hazard during said progressive removal of layers of soil, wherein said data processor comprises a radar controller to transmit and receive pulses, which are sequences of tones in a frequency domain, in both a SFCW (stepped frequency continuous wave) manner and a SFICW (stepped frequency interrupted continuous wave) manner, wherein said data processor comprises a tone calibrator to determine antenna deficiencies, and wherein said data processor comprises a pulse corrector to individually correct imperfections in said tones using output of said tone calibrator.
A method for GPR (ground penetrating radar) systems, the method comprising:
- detecting a presence of a hazard during a progressive removal of layers of soil using a GPR unit mounted on a bucket of a digging machine, said GPR unit comprising at least one GPR antenna mounted on and/or through a ground facing base of said bucket and a data processor mounted within an upper portion of said bucket;
- and providing an alert by a post-processing unit installed installable in a cabin of said digging machine when said data processor detects said hazard during said progressive removal of layers of soil, wherein said detecting comprises transmitting and receiving pulses which are sequences of tones in a frequency domain, in both a SFCW (stepped frequency continuous wave) manner and a SFICW (stepped frequency interrupted continuous wave) manner, and wherein said detecting comprises determining antenna deficiencies, and individually correcting imperfections in said tones using output of said determining.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.