JPH0865030A - Automatic communication antenna tracking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make an antenna automatically and highly accurately track a satellite or a base station even when a mobile object equipped with the antenna is in an inclined state with respect to the horizontal direction. CONSTITUTION: This device is provided with a communication antenna P-ANT mounted to an automobile CAR whose bearing and elevation angle can be adjusted by an antenna driving mechanism 11, a GPS reception means 13 for obtaining the present location data of the automobile from a GPS satellite, a means 14 for detecting the bearing data of the advancing direction of the mobile object at present, the means 15 for detecting the inclination angle data against the horizontal direction of the mobile object, the means 19 for storing the position data of an object such as the satellite or the like and a tracking circuit means 16 for controlling the antenna driving mechanism 11 based on the data and controlling the direction of the communication antenna P-ANT so as to be turned to the object. When the automobile is inclined against the horizontal direction, by using the inclination angle data as one of the elements of the automobile tracking control of the antenna and performing arithmetic operations, the angle control of the antenna for which the inclination angle of the mobile object is cancelled is made possible.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for automatically tracking the pointing direction of an antenna, which is mounted on a mobile unit and communicates with a satellite or base station, to the satellite or base station.
In particular, the present invention relates to a communication antenna automatic tracking device suitable for application to a communication antenna mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a moving body such as an automobile which communicates with a satellite or a base station, the position and direction of the moving body itself change as the moving body moves. Automatic tracking is required so that the direction always faces the satellite or base station. Conventionally, there is an automatic tracking device of this type described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-261928. This technology tracks an antenna to a base station and uses a positioning system (GP) that uses artificial satellites.
The current position of the vehicle is measured by S), the position of the base station is stored in the storage means in advance, and the directivity of the antenna is controlled based on the relative relationship between the current position of the vehicle and the position of the base station. Therefore, the antenna can always be directed to the base station regardless of the movement of the vehicle.
As another technique of automatic tracking of an antenna mounted on a mobile body using this GPS, there is also a technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-307803.

[0003]

The conventional communication antenna automatic tracking technique as described above recognizes the position of a moving body by measuring the latitude and longitude of the moving body by GPS or measuring the altitude of the moving body. However, the pointing direction of the antenna is set based on the azimuth and elevation angle obtained from the relative positional relationship between the measurement position and the base station or satellite. However, this technique is premised on that the moving body is parallel to the ground, that is, in a horizontal state, and therefore, for example, when the vehicle is running on a sloping ground or is stopped and the vehicle itself is tilted back and forth or left and right. However, since the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of the antenna are changed accordingly, there is a problem that it may not be possible to correctly point the satellite or the base station.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic tracking device for a communication antenna which can set the pointing direction of the antenna with respect to a satellite or a base station with high accuracy even when the moving body is in an inclined state. Especially.

[0005]

A communication antenna automatic tracking device of the present invention is provided with a current position data of an antenna obtained by a GPS satellite, data of an azimuth direction of a moving body equipped with the antenna, and a horizontal direction of the moving body. The tracking operation of the communication antenna is performed based on the inclination angle data with respect to.

That is, as a preferred embodiment embodying the present invention, a communication antenna mounted on a mobile body and having an azimuth and an elevation angle adjustable by an antenna drive mechanism, and a GPS receiving means for obtaining the current location data of the mobile body from a GPS satellite. A means for detecting the azimuth data of the current moving direction of the moving body, a means for detecting the inclination angle data of the moving body with respect to the horizontal direction, a means for storing the position data of the object, the current position data, Tracking circuit means for controlling the antenna driving mechanism based on the azimuth data, the inclination angle data, and the position data of the target object so as to direct the pointing direction of the communication antenna to the target object.

Further, as a preferred structure of the present invention, a communication antenna mounted on a mobile body and having an azimuth and an elevation angle adjustable by an antenna driving mechanism, and the communication antenna is formed horizontally and vertically with respect to a reference plane of the mobile body. Means for detecting angle data, GPS receiving means for obtaining current position data of the mobile body from GPS satellites, means for detecting direction data of the current traveling direction of the mobile body, and inclination angle data for the horizontal direction of the mobile body. Means for storing the position data of the object, and the current position of the communication antenna based on the current position data of the moving body, the azimuth data of the moving direction of the moving body, and the horizontal inclination angle data of the moving body. , Arithmetic circuit means for calculating the current communication antenna state consisting of azimuth and elevation angle, and position data of the object and the current communication antenna state for the moving body. Comparison calculation circuit means for calculating the phase tilt versus angle of the communication antenna, and the antenna so that the relative tilt angle becomes zero based on the horizontal and vertical angle data of the communication antenna with respect to the moving body and the relative tilt angle. And a control means for controlling the drive mechanism.

[0008]

When the moving body is tilted with respect to the horizontal direction, the tilt angle of the moving body is canceled by using this tilt angle data as one of the elements of the vehicle tracking control of the antenna for calculation. The angle of the antenna can be controlled, and the antenna can be directed to the object with high accuracy regardless of the tilted state of the moving body.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and here shows an example in which a vehicle is equipped with a satellite dish parabolic antenna. As shown in FIG. 2, a car CAR has a parabolic antenna P-ANT on its roof.
Is mounted and is connected to the communication device 10. This antenna P-ANT is configured so that its directivity can be arbitrarily adjusted by adjusting the angle of the parabolic reflecting surface in the up-down direction and the left-right direction by the attached antenna drive mechanism 11. As the antenna driving mechanism 11, any mechanism such as a gear mechanism and a link mechanism can be adopted, but the description thereof is omitted here. Further, the antenna drive mechanism 11 is provided with a drive angle detector 12 which is composed of an encoder or the like and detects each angle of the antenna in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction with respect to a later-described reference plane of the automobile, that is, the antenna drive angle.

Further, the car CAR is provided with an antenna GPS-ANT for receiving GPS signals,
It is connected to the GPS receiver 13. This GPS receiver 13
As is well known, the current position data such as the latitude and longitude of the automobile can be obtained by receiving the radio signal from the GPS satellite and performing the calculation based on the signal as is well known.

Further, the car CAR is provided with an azimuth detector 14 for detecting the traveling direction of the car, that is, which azimuth the car is facing. This direction detector 14
For example, a geomagnetic gyro is used for a car C
The azimuth data corresponding to the azimuth in which the front of the AR is currently facing is detected as an electric signal. Further, a tilt angle detector 15 is provided to detect whether the car CAR is tilted forward, backward, leftward or rightward with respect to the horizontal direction. As the tilt angle detector 15, for example, electrodes are provided at a plurality of positions on the front and back surfaces of a convex container having a liquid inside, and electrodes are arranged between the electrodes when the liquid is moved in the container depending on the tilt angle. An electronic level that electrically detects the tilt angle by the change in the capacitance of the is used. As a result, tilt angle data in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction of the vehicle are detected as electric signals.

The current position data of the GPS receiver 13, the azimuth data of the azimuth detector 14, and the tilt angle data of the tilt angle detector 15 are input to the antenna tracking circuit 16, respectively. That is, each of the above-mentioned data is first of all the mobile body data arithmetic circuit 1
7, the position of the vehicle, to be precise, the current position of the antenna, and the plane that serves as a reference of the antenna directivity, for example, as shown in FIG. A reference plane angle (azimuth and elevation angle) tilted in the azimuth direction and the elevation angle direction is calculated. The respective data of the antenna current position and the reference plane angle obtained by this calculation are input to the comparison calculation circuit 18.

Further, the antenna tracking circuit 16 has a ROM in which position data of many communicable satellites are stored in advance.
Among the satellites stored in the ROM 19, the position data of the satellite which is the current communication target is selected by the selector 20 and input to the comparison operation circuit 18. The comparison operation circuit 18 compares the satellite position data with the respective data of the antenna current position and the reference plane angle from the mobile object data operation circuit 17, and then the antenna should be directed to the satellite at the current antenna position. Calculate the angle. Further, a relative tilt angle indicating which angle the antenna should be tilted with respect to the reference plane is calculated and output from both the calculated directivity angle data and the reference plane angle data.

The automatic tracking control circuit 21 receives the drive angle from the drive angle detector 12 of the antenna and each data of the relative tilt angle from the comparison calculation circuit 18, compares the data, and Feedback control of the antenna drive mechanism 11 is performed so that the two pieces of data match, so that the pointing direction of the antenna P-ANT is directed to the target satellite.

An automatic tracking operation by such an automatic antenna tracking device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the mobile body data arithmetic circuit, the current position of the vehicle and its traveling direction are calculated based on the current position data of the vehicle from the GPS receiver, the direction data from the direction detector, and the inclination angle data of the vehicle from the inclination angle detector. The azimuth and the tilt angle with respect to the horizontal direction are calculated (S101), and the current position of the antenna mounted on the vehicle and the tilt angle of the reference plane of the vehicle are calculated (S102). As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the inclination angle of the reference plane BP is an angle θ1 formed by the reference plane of the automobile with respect to the horizontal plane when the automobile CAR is inclined in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. , Θ2. Then, in the comparison operation circuit 18, R
The position data of the satellite to be communicated from OM19 and (S
103), which of the azimuth direction and the elevation angle direction should the antenna directivity be set with respect to the reference plane, based on the current antenna position from the mobile body data calculation circuit 17 and each datum of the reference plane inclination angle? The relative tilt angle is calculated (S104).

Then, in the automatic tracking control circuit 21, the calculated relative tilt angle information and the current antenna drive angle from the antenna drive angle detector 12 (S10).
5) is compared, and the antenna drive mechanism 11 is feedback-controlled so that the amount of deviation between the two becomes zero, that is, the two match, and the antenna reflecting mirror is driven in the azimuth direction and the elevation angle direction (S106). Thereby, the antenna P-A
It is possible to set the angle of NT relative to the reference plane, and as a result, direct the antenna P-ANT to the satellite.

Therefore, when the car CAR is in a tilted state such as traveling on a sloping ground or stopping, the tilt angle detector 15 detects the tilt angles in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction of the car, and based on this. Antenna P-A
Since the inclination angle of the plane that serves as the reference of the NT directivity angle, that is, the virtual reference plane BP of the automobile is detected, this reference plane B
By adjusting the relative angle of the antenna P-ANT with respect to P, the tilt angle of the car CAR can be offset, and the antenna can be accurately directed to the satellite even when the tilt state of the car is changed. This makes it possible to realize satellite communication in an automobile under suitable conditions.

Although the above embodiment is an example in which the antenna is automatically tracked to the satellite, it can be similarly applied to the case where the antenna is automatically tracked to the base station. In this case, it goes without saying that the ROM stores the position data of the base station in advance. Further, it goes without saying that the operator can manually input the target satellite or base station position data.

In the above embodiment, the parabolic antenna whose directional direction is controlled by a mechanical operation is an example.
It can also be applied to an array antenna whose directivity is controlled by an electric operation.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the present position data of the antenna obtained by the GPS satellite, the azimuth data of the traveling direction of the mobile body equipped with the antenna, and the inclination angle data of the mobile body with respect to the horizontal direction are obtained. Since the tracking operation of the communication antenna is performed based on, the angle control of the antenna that offsets this tilt angle is possible even when the mobile body is tilted with respect to the horizontal direction, regardless of the tilted state of the mobile body. It is possible to direct the antenna to the object with high accuracy.

Further, the present invention provides a communication antenna which is mounted on a mobile body and whose azimuth and elevation angle can be adjusted by an antenna drive mechanism, and a GP which obtains the current location data of the mobile body from a GPS satellite.
S receiving means, means for detecting azimuth data of the current moving direction of the moving body, means for detecting tilt angle data of the moving body with respect to the horizontal direction, means for storing position data of the object, and current location By providing a tracking circuit means for controlling the antenna driving mechanism based on the data, the azimuth data, the tilt angle data, and the position data of the target object so as to direct the pointing direction of the communication antenna to the target object, The antenna can be directed to the object with high accuracy regardless of the tilted state.

Further, according to the present invention, as the tracking circuit means, the present position, azimuth and elevation angle of the communication antenna at present are based on the present position data of the moving body, the azimuth data of the moving direction of the moving body and the horizontal inclination angle data of the moving body. Computation circuit means for computing the current communication antenna state, Comparing computation circuit means for computing the position inclination and angle of the communication antenna with respect to the moving body from the position data of the object and the current communication antenna state, and Based on the horizontal and vertical angle data and the relative tilt angle, the moving body is provided with a control means for controlling the antenna drive mechanism so that the relative tilt angle becomes zero to control the azimuth and elevation angle. It is possible to realize the setting of the pointing direction of the antenna that cancels the tilted state of.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an embodiment of an automatic tracking device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view showing an example in which an automobile is equipped with an antenna.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an inclination angle of an automobile with respect to a reference plane.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a tracking operation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Parabolic antenna for P-ANT communication GPS-ANT GPS antenna BP reference plane CAR automobile 10 communication device 11 antenna drive mechanism 12 antenna drive angle detector 13 GPS receiver 14 azimuth detector 15 tilt angle detector 16 antenna tracking circuit 17 movement Body data arithmetic circuit 18 Comparison arithmetic circuit 19 ROM 21 Automatic tracking control circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication antenna automatic tracking device for tracking the directional direction of a communication antenna mounted on a mobile body with respect to an object such as a satellite or a base station. A communication antenna automatic tracking device, which performs a tracking operation of the communication antenna based on data of an azimuth in a traveling direction of a body and data of an inclination angle of a moving body with respect to a horizontal direction. 2. A communication antenna mounted on a mobile body, the azimuth and elevation angle of which can be adjusted by an antenna drive mechanism, and a GPS receiving means for obtaining current location data of the mobile body from a GPS satellite.
Means for detecting azimuth data of the current traveling direction of the moving body, means for detecting tilt angle data of the moving body with respect to the horizontal direction, means for storing position data of the object,
Tracking circuit means for controlling the antenna drive mechanism based on the present position data, azimuth data, tilt angle data, and position data of the object to control the directivity direction of the communication antenna to be directed to the object. Automatic communication antenna tracking device. 3. A communication antenna which is mounted on a mobile body and whose azimuth and elevation angle can be adjusted by an antenna drive mechanism, and means for detecting an angle formed by the communication antenna horizontally and vertically with respect to a reference plane of the mobile body. GPS receiving means for obtaining the current position data of the mobile body from GPS satellites, means for detecting direction data of the current traveling direction of the mobile body, means for detecting tilt angle data of the mobile body with respect to the horizontal direction, and position of the object. Means for storing data, and current communication consisting of the current location, azimuth and elevation of the current communication antenna based on the current location data of the mobile body, azimuth data in the moving direction of the mobile body, and tilt angle data in the horizontal direction of the mobile body. Comparing circuit means for calculating the antenna state, and for calculating the relative angle of the communication antenna with respect to the moving body from the position data of the object and the current communication antenna state. Arithmetic circuit means and control means for controlling the antenna drive mechanism so that the relative angle becomes zero based on horizontal and vertical angle data with respect to the moving body of the communication antenna and the relative angle. The feature is a communication antenna automatic tracking device.