Location tracking system in factory and method thereof
AssigneesHyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, Hyundai Autoever Corp.
InventorsSeungryul Oh, Minoh Heo, JaeYong Park, Nulee Song
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A location tracking system includes a plurality of markers disposed on a fixture in an area having an absolute coordinate in the factory, an image collecting device fixedly attached to a tracking target for management, configured to recognize an absolute location of a reference marker detected by a visual odometry (VO) method in an image captured by a camera, and estimate a relative location based on the absolute location of the reference marker; and a server configured to track a location of the target based on the relative location received through a wireless communication from the image collecting device.
Claims19
A location tracking system for a factory, comprising:
- a plurality of markers configured to be disposed on a fixture in an area having an absolute coordinate in the factory;
- an image collecting device that is coupled to a tracking target for management and that is configured to (i) recognize an absolute location of a reference marker detected by a visual odometry (VO) method in an image captured by a camera and (ii) estimate a relative location based on the absolute location of the reference marker;
- and
- a server configured to track a location of the target based on the relative location received through a wireless communication from the image collecting device,
- wherein the image collecting device is configured to transmit, to the server, a device ID and vehicle identification information,
- wherein the server is configured to:
- match and store the device ID and the vehicle identification information received from the image collecting device,
- start production management for the vehicle,
- determine facility devices for each production process based on a model and specification of the vehicle and a current location,
- control execution of one or more production process operations using the determined facility devices, and
- receive and update production process result information,
- wherein the image collecting device is configured to transmit detachment information from the finished vehicle after use to the server, and
- wherein the server is configured to:
- receive the detachment information from the image collecting device,
- cancel the matching between the device ID and the vehicle identification information of the vehicle, and
- end production management for the vehicle.
A location tracking method in a factory of an image collecting device attached to a tracking target for management, comprising:
- collecting, by at least one camera, an image data of surroundings captured while moving;
- deriving, by an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), an inertia value by measuring an acceleration and a moving direction;
- detecting, by a location tracking unit, whether a reference marker disposed on a fixture in an area having absolute coordinates in the factory exists in the image data;
- based on the reference marker being detected:
- reading a geometric shape of the reference marker,
- recognizing an absolute location and a marker direction of the reference marker defined in advance, and
- estimating a relative location of the tracking target based on an absolute position and a marker direction of the reference marker;
- transmitting a device ID and vehicle identification information to a server to thereby enable the server to (i) match and store the device ID and the vehicle identification information from the image collecting device, and initiate production management for the tracking target;
- and
- transmitting detachment information from the finished tracking target after use to the server so that the server (i) receives the detachment information from the image collecting device, (ii) cancels the matching between the device ID and the vehicle identification information of the tracking target, and (iii) ends production management for the tracking target.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.