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US 6,789,014 B1Granted
Direct modification of DGPS information with inertial measurement data
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsAndrew Karl Wilhelm Rekow, Frederick William Nelson, Dave Mercer, Terence Pickett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A global positioning system based navigation system for a ground vehicle, in particular an agricultural ground vehicle such as a tractor, combine, sprayer, or the like, includes an inertial compensation assembly that provides inertial augmentation to compensate global positioning system based navigation information such as position, course, and track spacing for errors caused by variation of ground vehicle attitude (i.e., roll and yaw) over non-level terrain.
Claims67
A navigation system for a ground vehicle, comprising:
- a global positioning system receiver assembly for receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system and generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- a navigation control system interconnected with the global positioning system receiver assembly for steering the ground vehicle;
- and
- an inertial compensation assembly coupled to the global positioning system receiver assembly and the navigation control system for replacing the position and course with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle to provide corrected navigation information to the navigation control system, the inertial compensation assembly comprising a gyroscope assembly for measuring a yaw rate of the ground vehicle and an accelerometer assembly for measuring a lateral acceleration of the ground vehicle, the inertial compensation assembly using the measured yaw rate and lateral acceleration for generating the corrected position and course by calculating an off-track distance for the ground vehicle from the lateral acceleration generated by the accelerometer assembly and a distance due to high speed acceleration of the ground vehicle, the distance due to high speed acceleration being determined from changes in the position of the ground vehicle with respect to the course of the ground vehicle.
- wherein the navigation control system uses the corrected navigation information for steering the ground vehicle.
2 more elements
A method for steering a ground vehicle traversing non-level terrain, comprising:
- receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system;
- generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- replacing the position and course stripped from the navigation information with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle for providing corrected navigation information;
- and
- steering the ground vehicle using the corrected navigation information,
- wherein the step of steering the ground vehicle using the corrected navigation information comprises steering the ground vehicle so that the ground vehicle follows a track substantially parallel to a previously navigated track.
3 more elements
An inertial compensation assembly for a navigation system of a ground vehicle, the navigation system including a global positioning system receiver assembly for receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system and generating navigation information for the ground vehicle and a navigation control system for steering the ground vehicle, the inertial compensation assembly comprising:
- a gyroscope assembly for determining a yaw angle for the ground vehicle;
- an accelerometer assembly for determining a lateral acceleration of the ground vehicle;
- and
- a processing assembly coupled to the gyroscope assembly and accelerometer assembly for replacing the position and course information with corrected position and course information to provide corrected navigation information to the navigation control system for steering the ground vehicle,
- wherein the processor assembly generates the corrected position and course information using the yaw angle measured by the gyroscope assembly and the lateral acceleration measured by the accelerometer assembly so that the corrected navigation information is inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle over non-level terrain.
2 more elements
A navigation system for a ground vehicle, comprising:
- a global positioning system receiver assembly for receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system and generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- a navigation control system interconnected with the global positioning system receiver assembly for steering the ground vehicle;
- and
- an inertial compensation assembly coupled to the global positioning system receiver assembly and the navigation control system for replacing the position and course with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle to provide corrected navigation information to the navigation control system, the inertial compensation assembly comprising a gyroscope assembly for measuring a yaw rate of the ground vehicle and an accelerometer assembly for measuring a lateral acceleration of the ground vehicle, the inertial compensation assembly using the measured yaw rate and lateral acceleration for generating the corrected position and course using the equation:
- CC=[GR/FMEAS]+[(CGPS−CG)·Kc/CFR]+Pf
- where CC is the corrected course;
- GR is the yaw rate;
- FMEAS is the frequency of measurement of the yaw rate by the gyroscope assembly;
- CGPS is the course from the navigation information generated by the global positioning system receiver assembly;
- CG is the gyroscopic course calculated by the inertial compensation assembly from the yaw rate measured by the gyroscope assembly;
- Kc is a variable filter value;
- CFR is a course filter resolution variable;
- and Pf is a value projecting the corrected course from a pivot point of the ground vehicle to a point where the global positioning system receiver assembly is mounted to the ground vehicle;
- and
- wherein the navigation control system uses the corrected navigation information for steering the ground vehicle.
12 more elements
A navigation system for a ground vehicle, comprising:
- a global positioning system receiver assembly for receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system and generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- a navigation control system interconnected with the global positioning system receiver assembly for steering the ground vehicle;
- and
- an inertial compensation assembly coupled to the global positioning system receiver assembly and the navigation control system for replacing the position and course with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle to provide corrected navigation information to the navigation control system, the inertial compensation assembly calculating the slope of the non-level terrain from the measured lateral acceleration of the ground vehicle, the slope being added to the corrected navigation information,
- wherein the navigation control system uses the corrected navigation information for steering the ground vehicle.
2 more elements
A method for steering a ground vehicle traversing non-level terrain, comprising:
- receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system;
- generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- replacing the position and course stripped from the navigation information with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle for providing corrected navigation information;
- and
- steering the ground vehicle using the corrected navigation information,
- wherein the step of replacing the position and course stripped from the navigation information comprises determining a yaw angle for the ground vehicle using a gyroscope assembly and determining lateral acceleration of the ground vehicle using an accelerometer assembly, the lateral acceleration and the yaw angle being used for generating the corrected position and course.
3 more elements
A method for steering a ground vehicle traversing non-level terrain, comprising:
- receiving a positioning signal from a global positioning system;
- generating navigation information for the ground vehicle, the navigation information including a position and course for the ground vehicle;
- replacing the position and course stripped from the navigation information with a corrected position and a corrected course that are inertially compensated for roll and yaw of the ground vehicle for providing corrected navigation information;
- calculating the slope of non-level terrain, the slope being added to the corrected navigation information;
- and
- steering the ground vehicle using the corrected navigation information.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.