| US 7,480,564 B2 | ||
| System for determining the relative position of a second farm vehicle in relation to a first farm vehicle | ||
| Patrick Metzler, St. Wendel (Germany); Werner Flohr, Kaiserslautern-Dansenberg (Germany); and Michael Höh, Rieschweiler-Mühlbach (Germany) | ||
| Assigned to Deere & Company, Moline, Ill. (US) | ||
| Filed on Aug. 11, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/201,544. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 10 2004 039 460 (DE), filed on Aug. 14, 2004. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0047418 A1, Mar. 02, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. G01C 21/36 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 701—207 [701/200; 701/50] | 19 Claims |
| 1. A system for determining the relative position of a second vehicle in relation to a first vehicle, wherein the first vehicle
and the second vehicle include equipment to jointly perform an operation on a field, the system comprising:
the first vehicle including a computer and a first satellite-supported position sensing device and having a receiver for receiving
signals from several satellites in one or more reception modes and structure for providing first position data for the first
vehicle;
the second vehicle including a computer and a second satellite-supported position sensing device for receiving signals from
several satellites in one or more of the reception modes and structure for making position data of the second vehicle available;
a data transmission connection between the first vehicle and the second vehicle for transmitting the position data of the
first vehicle to the computer of the second vehicle or vice versa;
the computer of the second vehicle operable to determine data with respect to the relative position of the second vehicle
in relation to the first vehicle based on the position data of the first vehicle and the position data of the second vehicle;
a control device for receiving signal quality information, wherein the position sensing devices of both vehicles provide information
quality signals indicative of the quality of the signals of the respectively received satellites to the control device, and
wherein the control device is responsive to the information quality signals such that the two position sensing devices operate
in the same reception mode or uniform reception modes; and
a reception device for receiving corrective data from reference stations in known locations, wherein the control device is
responsive to information regarding quality of the corrective data to improve accuracy of the position sensing devices, wherein
the control device is operable to prompt the position sensing devices to use the same reception mode or the uniform reception
modes for the corrective data.
|