Patent · US Active

Guidance, navigation, and control system for a vehicle

US8260483B2 · kind B2 · utility

36Cited by
9References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 12, 2011
Grant dateSep 4, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 12, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG05D1/027
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

The present invention provides a guidance, navigation, and control method and system for an underground mining vehicle that allow said vehicle to be taught a route by a human operator and then have it automatically drive the route with no human intervention. The method works in three steps: teaching, route profiling, and playback. In the teaching step the vehicle is manually driven by a operator along a route which can consist of an arbitrary sequence of maneuvers including tramming forwards, switching directions, tramming backwards, turning, or pausing movement. During this phase raw data from vehicle-mounted sensors including odometric sensors and rangefinders are logged to a file throughout teaching for later processing. During the (offline) route profiling step, the raw data in the log file are processed into a route profile, and a profile of desired speed as a function of distance along the path.

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