US 5,294,970 AGranted

Spatial positioning system

AssigneeSpatial Positioning Systems, Inc.

InventorsAndrew W. Dornbusch, Eric J. Lundberg, Yvan J. Beliveau, Timothy Pratt

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A spatial positioning system includes fixed referent stations which emit rotating, divergent laser beams and a portable reflector. Each fixed station also includes a detector and a processor. The portable reflector may include retroreflectors or transponders. When the rotation of the laser beam is such that it is in line with a portable reflector, the transmitted laser beam is reflected off the portable reflector and received at the fixed receiver. For any point which is crossed by the fanned laser beams of a fixed station, a horizontal angle can be determined. Once these horizontal angles are known for three fixed stations, the point of intersection of three planes, and thus the three-dimensional position of the point, is determined.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A spatial positioning and measurement system for determining the instantaneous x-y-z position of an object in a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, said system comprising:

a plurality of fixed referent stations located at known locations within a local coordinate system, each said referent station including emitter means for emitting at least two sweeping radiation beams which are divergent in a plane perpendicular to the plane in which they are swept;
a portable reflector means for reflecting said beams toward said fixed referent stations;
detecting means for detecting said beams, said detecting means generating a signal each time one of said beams is detected;
and
determination means for determining the x-y-z position of said portable reflector means and each of said other fixed referent stations relative to each other within said local coordinate system based upon said signals generated by said detecting means.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 07/755,780Filed 6 Sep 1991 · continuation in part
Priority: 31 Dec 1990
Granted: 15 Mar 1994
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G01C 15/002
Surveying instruments or accessories not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C13/00: active optical surveying means
G01S 5/16
Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance…:…
G01S 7/4813
Common to transmitter and receiver: housing arrangements
G01C
Measuring distances, levels or bearings