Patent · US Expired

Sensor-fusion navigator for automated guidance of off-road vehicles

US6445983B1 · kind B1 · utility

283Cited by
44References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 7, 2000
Grant dateSep 3, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 7, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG05D1/0278
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An automatically guided agricultural vehicle with multiple sensors is disclosed. The automatically guided agricultural vehicle includes guidance parameter identification using multi-sensor data fusion for real-time vehicle guidance. To insure robust navigation, a map-based guidance and sensor-based guidance are disclosed and integrated because no individual sensing technology is ideally suited for vehicle automation under all modes of use. The appropriate sensor and operational mode will depend on the field status of time or operation. A fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) and a real-time kinematic GPS (RTK-GPS) and machine vision are added to the guidance system in order to improve reliability of the system for vehicle guidance. The navigator includes key functions of selecting control mode, correcting position by vehicle roll/pitch inclinations, Kalman filtering, and calculating a steering angle.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.