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US 9,909,864 B2Granted
System, device and method for tracking position and orientation of vehicle, loading device and cargo in loading device operations
AssigneeOptilift AS
InventorsTorbjørn Engedal, Harald Nøkland, David Gustavsson
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Abstract
The present invention generally relates to a system, device and a method for loading and/or unloading a cargo to and/or from a second vehicle where a loading device is mounted on a first vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and a device for a sensor system (with sensor platform deployed at the crane tip) used for heave compensation and 3D positioning of cargo and second vehicle during loading and unloading process of cargo to/from a ship where a crane is mounted on an oil rig.
Claims20
A sensor system comprising:
- a sensor platform for describing movement of a surface of a second vehicle relative to a suspended load object, the load object being suspended from a loading device, comprising a crane having a boom with a load line extending downwardly therefrom which the load object is suspended, mounted on a first vehicle and being moved between said first vehicle and said second vehicle, said second vehicle moving independently relative to the first vehicle in both a vertical and a horizontal plane, and
- wherein said sensor platform is mounted to the boom with an unobstructed view to the surface of the second vehicle along where the load line extends downwardly from the crane boom, and
- wherein said sensor platform comprises an image capturing device for outputting images of the surface of said second vehicle, and a range measurement device, for outputting measurement of a distance in a defined direction between the range measurement device and a selected region of the surface of said second vehicle, and
- wherein said sensor platform has an output signal line for transmission of image and range data, and
- wherein said sensor system comprises a post processing unit configured for (a) processing of the images being outputted by said image capturing device and range data being outputted by said range measurement device, (b) providing a 3-dimensional description of a selected region of the surface of said second vehicle, the description comprising a position, an orientation, a pose of said second vehicle, and (c) outputting from said post processing unit at least one parameter describing the movement of the surface of said second vehicle relative to said suspended load object.
2 more elements
A method to be used for describing the movement of the surface of a second vehicle relative to a suspended load object comprising:
- (a) providing (i) a single loading device that comprises a single crane with a single boom from which a line suspending a load object extends downwardly, the crane carried by a first vehicle and moving the suspended load object toward a load-receiving surface of a second vehicle that is moving independently relative the first vehicle along both a vertical plane and a horizontal plane, (ii) a sensor platform carried by the boom and disposed adjacent where the line extends downwardly from the boom, the sensor platform above the second vehicle and comprising a camera facing downwardly toward the load-receiving surface of the second vehicle for providing image data of the second vehicle and a range measurement device facing downwardly toward the load-receiving surface of the second vehicle for providing range data to the second vehicle, (iii) a post processing unit configured to process the range data outputted by the range measurement device and outputting at least one parameter describing the movement of the surface of the second vehicle relative to the suspended load object;
- (b) suspending the load object from the line that extends downwardly from the boom of the crane carried by the first vehicle;
- (c) moving the load object suspended by the line extending downwardly from the boom of the crane from the first vehicle toward the second vehicle while the second vehicle is moving relative to the first vehicle in both a vertical plane and a horizontal plane;
- (d) obtaining camera image data comprised of camera images captured by the camera of the load-receiving surface of the second vehicle;
- (e) obtaining range data comprised of a distance measured by the range measurement device from adjacent where the line suspending the load object extends downwardly from the boom of the crane to a predetermined region of the load-receiving surface of the second vehicle;
- (f) outputting the camera image data and the range data to the post-processing unit;
- and
- (g) processing the camera image data and the range data to obtain at least one parameter descriptive of the movement of the surface of the second vehicle relative to the load object suspended from the line.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.