DE19909553A1 - Direction and position determination method for tracking people, animals or machines, involves short circuiting one or more antennas and measuring attenuation of received field strength at active antennas - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves short circuiting one or more direction sensitive antennas (3a,3b,3c) in sequence cyclically and measuring attenuation of received field strength at the active antennas, for recognizing the direction of incoming transmitter signal. The transmitters (1) transmit individual identifications in sequence cyclically, and the exact position and direction determination is made possible by determining angle of receiver unit (2) relative to transmitters.

Description

The invention relates to an electronic system for directional and Position determination for the orientation of people, animals or machines in an area swept by transmitters.

Object of the invention

Orientation of people and vehicles in unknown terrain is becoming worldwide performed using the Global Position System (GPS) and the compass. However, the GPS system does not work in closed rooms. Besides, is this type of orientation completely depends on the reliability and Availability of the American military satellite system and weather conditions. This technique is currently very complex and expensive. Other systems, such as infrared positioning or inductive Positioning requires a lot of installation work. Orientation systems with conventional radio technology require transmitters that work with the Communicate orientation device. It is difficult the direction of the to determine incoming signals. The receiving part cannot determine from which direction the radio signals are coming from.

Technical solution of the invention

The object of the invention is based on a simple, easy to operating direction and position determination for the orientation of people, To allow animals or machines in an area swept by transmitters and the problem of the same field strength signals with the receiver turned by 180 ° bypass.

For this purpose, on the premises such. B. fairs, museums, zoos, amusement parks; Airports and tourist centers have one or more transmitters installed. People, animals or machines in this area are given electronic equipment consisting of a receiving unit, a computing unit and a User interface.

The receiving antennas are in this device for direction and position determination so arranged and switched that you a from the received signals can determine the clear direction and distance of the transmitter. From these The device can use information to calculate its absolute position and direction. This information can either be provided to the user through the user interface be communicated or evaluated to calculate a destination or route.  

Description of the details

The invention is described below using a highly schematic Embodiment explained.

To drawing 1 Direction determination, explanations

Drawing 1 shows a transmitter 1 and a receiving unit 2 with an arrangement of three or more directional antennas 3 a-c, z. B. ferrite antenna. One connection of the antennas 3 is connected to an interrupter 4 and an amplifier 5 .

The outputs of the amplifiers 5 are connected to the evaluation unit 6 . The interrupters 4 are controlled by the evaluation unit 6 . To determine the direction of the transmitter 1 , the receiving unit 2 runs through a measuring cycle. In this one antenna 3 a-c is short-circuited via its associated breaker 4 . This results in a change in the reception field strength at the two active antennas. The received signal of the active antenna also changes by rotating the receiving part 2 relative to the transmitter.

During the measuring cycle, at least one antenna must be active and at least one antenna must be short-circuited for a field strength measurement process. At least one other antenna can be active or deactivated with high resistance. After a measuring cycle has been run through, in which all three antennas 3 have been short-circuited once and the output values of the active antennas have been measured, the direction of the transmitter 1 or the orientation of the receiving part 2 to the transmitter 1 can be clearly determined from the present measured values. The mechanism of action is based on the attenuation of the field by the short-circuited antenna, the angle of the antennas to the transmitter influencing the degree of attenuation in the active antennas and a statement about the direction of the transmitter.

The advantage of this invention lies in the simple circuit technology and the light weight Evaluation of the results and lower energy requirements.

To drawing 2 Position determination, explanations

Drawing 2 shows three transmitters 1 a-c and a receiving unit 2 .

To determine the position, a transmitter transmits for a short predefined time, and the receiving unit 2 runs through a measuring cycle. This determines the direction of this transmitter.

After all three transmitters are determined in their direction, the position and direction of the receiving unit 2 relative to the transmitters can be determined by calculation.

The transmitters differ by an individual identifier. This can be done by Frequency differences, a modulation or by other coding.

Claims (2)

1. A method for determining the direction and position, characterized in that an arrangement of three or more antennas ( 3 ) on a receiving unit ( 2 ) undergo such a measuring cycle that at least one or more antennas ( 3 ) are short-circuited and thereby in the opposite active antennas a measurable attenuation of the field strength occurs and thus the direction of the incoming transmitter signal can be recognized. 2. A method for determining the direction and position according to claim 1, characterized in that one or more transmitters ( 1 ) send one after the other cyclically with an individual identifier and thus enable precise position and direction determination by determining the angle in the receiving unit ( 2 ).