Communications: electrical – Vehicle position indication
Patent
1992-06-24
1995-12-19
Swarthout, Brent
Communications: electrical
Vehicle position indication
364449, G08G 1123
Patent
active
054772206
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a relative direction detecting method for detecting the relative travel direction of a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, various vehicular navigation systems capable of informing the driver of the current location of the vehicle have been developed. One known navigation system of this type detects the distance traveled and the relative travel direction of the vehicle at prescribed time intervals, successively calculates the vector sum of these detection results, and displays the current location of the vehicle by means of an appropriate display device on the basis of the calculated result and the given initial vehicle location information.
This kind of navigation system requires detection of the relative direction of the vehicle as described above, and for this reason there is a well-known arrangement for detecting the relative travel direction on the basis of the difference between the rotational angle of the left wheel and that of the right wheel, which occurs at the time of vehicle turning, by means of rotational sensors on a pair of wheels.
Japanese Patent Application Public Disclosure No. Sho 62-298716, for example, discloses a method for detecting the relative travel direction of a vehicle, in which information concerning rotational angles of the left and right front wheels is obtained by means of rotational speed sensors mounted on left and right front wheels, information concerning the average distance traveled by the rear wheels is also obtained, and on the basis of this information, information concerning the relative travel direction is obtained free from the detection error owing to the steering mechanism.
However, this proposed method has a disadvantage in that since at least one sensor is needed for detecting the average distance traveled by the rear wheels in addition to two speed sensors for detecting the wheel rotation angles of the two front wheels, the number of sensors required is large and the processing circuit for processing the signals generated by the sensors is complicated.
To overcome these disadvantages, an arrangement making use of the rotation of the cable of the already installed speedometer can be used. According to this method, although the number of sensors is not increased, the accuracy cannot help being unsatisfactory, so that it is difficult to detect the location of the vehicle with high accuracy.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved relative direction detecting method for a vehicle which is capable of detecting the relative travel direction of the vehicle with high accuracy only by detecting information concerning the rotational angles of the left and right front wheels.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
One feature of the present invention resides in that: in a relative direction detecting method for detecting the relative travel direction of a vehicle, the distance traveled by the right front wheel and the left front wheel of the vehicle are detected, and the turning angle of the vehicle is calculated on the basis of only the distances traveled by the right front wheel and the left front wheel, the tread width of the vehicle and the wheelbase of the vehicle, whereby the relative direction is detected.
Another feature of the present invention resides in that: in a method for detecting the relative location of a vehicle on the basis of the relative travel direction of the vehicle, the distances traveled by the right and left front wheels of the vehicle are detected, the turning angle of the vehicle is calculated on the basis of only the detected distances traveled by the two front wheels, the tread width of the vehicle and the wheel base of the vehicle, the distance traveled by a middle point midway between a pair of rear wheels is calculated on the basis of the calculated turning angle, the aforesaid tread width and the aforesaid distances traveled by the wheels, and the traveling locus vectors of the vehicle are calculated on the basis of the calculated turning angle and
REFERENCES:
patent: 4084241 (1978-04-01), Tsumura
patent: 4788645 (1988-11-01), Zavoli et al.
patent: 5058023 (1991-10-01), Kozikaro
Swarthout Brent
Zexel Corporation
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