JP2931638B2 - Mobile object ranging monitoring system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a distance measuring and monitoring system for a moving object running along a predetermined route, and more particularly to a position detecting means for a golf course, particularly a golf cart. And an efficient operation management system for a golf course based on cart position information.

[Related Art] Generally, in golf courses, self-propelled golf cart equipment that can be remotely controlled is often used in order to reduce the labor for transporting golf bags and to facilitate the progress of play. .

Conventionally, a golf cart control system buried a signal line in the ground along a cart path, and a position sensor for detecting an electromagnetic field generated from the signal line, and a direction change for advancing the cart along the line. And a driving power system. In addition, the cart is stopped at an electric marker point provided at a specific position in advance along the track or at a given position by a wireless controller at hand of the caddy.

Further, it is desired that the progress of the play at the golf course be performed smoothly, and the confirmation of safety is usually left to a caddy in many cases. For that purpose, it is desirable to know the exact distance between your own cart and the starting cart, but often the position of the previous pair is hidden behind a shadow and cannot be seen or is too far away Thus, there is a problem that an appropriate means for obtaining information serving as an index for maintaining an appropriate distance is lacking.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate the progress of play, it is desired that a caddy master room be provided with equipment that can grasp the position of each cart and the overall progress and provide appropriate instructions to each caddy regarding operation. Was.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to bury a signal line for guiding a moving body along a path of the moving body (cart). However, by using this signal line, the transmission and reception of signals between the mobile unit mounted on the mobile unit and the center device does not interfere with other radio equipment, and relatively easily and accurately controls each mobile unit. It is an object of the present invention to provide a moving object ranging monitoring system capable of measuring a position.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] The center device according to the present invention transmits a reference low-frequency signal using a buried line for guiding a moving object, and a mobile device mounted on each moving object is allocated to each of the moving objects. At the set time, the received signal is divided by two or a positive number and sent back.
In the center device, the received signal is converted from the original reference low-frequency signal to the same frequency as the transmission signal of the mobile device, and the phase difference is compared and detected. Since the phase difference is proportional to the propagation time of the return of the path of the signal line, the distance from the center device to the moving object along the line can be obtained by performing appropriate signal processing on this phase amount.

Thereby, in the center device, based on the position information of each moving body, the mutual distance,
Other necessary information can be transmitted and controlled, and a smooth operation of the intended moving body can be achieved.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(System Configuration) FIG. 1 shows an overall layout of a distance measuring and monitoring system for a golf cart according to the present invention. The center 1 is provided with a center device 2 including a monitoring device for monitoring and controlling the entire system, and a base station device 5 having a distance measurement communication function is provided at a base station 4 connected by a communication line via a transmission line 3. Along the golf courses 6 and 6 ', a signal is transmitted to a signal line 7 buried directly under the cart road, and the end 8 of the line is connected to a resistor 9 equal to the characteristic impedance of the line to provide anti-reflection. Terminated.

The golf cart 10 has a mobile unit 11 and has a transponder function for a ranging signal, a voice / data communication function, and a remote control processing function corresponding to the cart remote control device 12 carried by the cart operator. . Further, a signal transmission path is formed in a non-contact manner between the mobile unit 11 and the buried signal line 7 by electromagnetic coupling.

As in the conventional method, the cart 10 is buried along the course, near the tee ground or the like.
13 is provided to automatically stop or detect and register the cart 10 on the signal line 7.

The cart remote control device 12 includes means for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the mobile unit 11 by radio waves using low-power or low-power radio, and controls cart control signals and messages from the operator to the center 1. Function to send the mobile device 11
Has a function of receiving data from the center 1 which is received and transferred by the.

Next, a description will be given of a new distance measuring method adapted to the present system.

In the present embodiment, the reference signal for distance measurement is a low-frequency signal for minimizing attenuation of a signal transmitted to a buried line and minimizing induction interference to other wireless devices due to electromagnetic wave radiation. It is desirable to use a signal. As a design example, a signal transmitted from the center device 2 uses 9600 Hz. In this case, a coil for detecting a magnetic field due to a current flowing through the line is used as the electromagnetic coupler.

The mobile unit 11 receives the received 9600 Hz in the distance measurement operation mode.
Is returned as a response signal by dividing 4800Hz by
Acquisition of position information by phase difference detection in the center device 2 is achieved.

In general, since a large number of mobile units 11 exist on the same signal line, the timing at which each mobile unit 11 enters the distance measurement operation mode is controlled by a command from the base station apparatus 5 in a time division manner. You. That is, when each mobile unit 11 enters the section of one signal line, it receives a signal from the electrical marker at the first passing point, and performs data measurement time by data communication with the base station device 5 via a data line. Slots are given. By repeatedly performing the operation in the ranging mode within a predetermined time for each predetermined time slot, it is possible to avoid collision with a signal from another mobile device. Further, by repeatedly transmitting the distance measurement signal, the accuracy of the distance measurement can be improved by averaging, and the center 1 can grasp the position of each cart in real time.

(Configuration of Distance Measurement Communication Apparatus) FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the distance measurement communication apparatus of the base station 4. The oscillation frequency of the crystal oscillator 20 is divided by the frequency divider 21 to generate a reference frequency of 9600 Hz. When transmitting data from the base station 4, a reference frequency serving as a carrier is modulated by the data in a modulator (MOD) 22, and the transmission amplifier 2
3. The signal is transmitted from the band-pass filter (BPF) 24 through the shared device 25 to the buried signal line 26 as a downstream signal. As a modulation method, amplitude modulation, phase modulation, or frequency modulation is used.

The upstream signal transmitted from the mobile unit 11 via the signal line 26 is divided into 4800 Hz from the shared device 25,
7. The data is received as data through a receiving amplifier 28 and a demodulator (DEMO) 29.

In the operation of the distance measurement mode, the received signal and a part of the transmission signal are extracted, and the reference 4800 obtained from the two-minute period 30 is used.
And a phase comparator (PD) 31 to detect a phase difference. The desired distance data can be converted and extracted by the processor 32 using a software technique such as a method of converting the phase difference into a distance using a prepared comparison table.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a distance measuring communication device of the mobile device 11. The 9600 Hz upstream signal of the line is extracted from the non-contact pickup coil 40 approaching the signal line via the shared device 41, passed through the band-pass filter (BPF) 42, the receiving amplifier 43, and the demodulator (DEMO) 44 Is received as To transmit data from the mobile unit 11, the transmitted modulated wave 96
This is possible by using a 00 Hz carrier, dividing the frequency by a factor of 2 with a frequency divider 45, and transmitting the modulated 4800 Hz from the modulator 46 and the transmission amplifier (AMP) 47 through the shared device 41. It is.

In the operation in the distance measurement mode, the signal processor 48 turns on the transmission amplifier 47 based on the selection of the individual identification number of the mobile unit 11 from the base station 4, and the signal from the divide-by-2 frequency divider 45 is transmitted back.

In this embodiment, in order to make the configuration of the mobile device as simple as possible, the transmission frequency of the mobile device is created by using a signal from the base station, so it is not suitable for simultaneous two-way communication. If a well-known frequency multiplexing technology such as a local oscillator is used together, the communication capacity can be expanded by simultaneous two-way communication, or frequency multiplexing can be performed by using a ranging signal as a subcarrier, and mobile radio It is also possible to adopt a method of measuring the return time of the subcarrier as performed in communication.

The moving object distance measurement monitoring method of the present invention can be similarly applied to the operation management of a vehicle on a track, a vehicle for various operations, and the like, in addition to a golf cart at a golf course.

[Effects of the Invention] The present invention uses a low-frequency electromagnetic wave propagating through a track to detect the position and control the operation of a moving object traveling along a buried signal line. Since the method of measuring the delay time is used, it is possible to reduce the propagation loss of the electromagnetic wave and minimize the electromagnetic wave disturbance to surrounding wireless facilities.

Further, in the present invention, since a simple divide-by-2 signal folding system is used, the mounting device of the moving body can be reduced in size and simplified, and an economical system configuration can be achieved.

In addition, the present invention uses a physical absolute measurement and a calibration method using a conversion table by software, so that maintenance,
There is an advantage that it is easy to cope with a change in the route and high accuracy can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a golf cart ranging monitoring system of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a ranging communication device of a base station, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram of a distance measuring communication device of a mobile device. 1 ... Center, 2 ... Center device, 3 ... Transmission path,
4 Base station, 5 Base station device, 6 Golf course, 7 Signal line, 9 Resistance, 10 Golf cart, 11 Mobile device, 12 Cart remote control device, 13 ......
Marker signal device, 20: crystal oscillator, 21: frequency divider,
22 ... modulator, 23 ... transmission amplifier, 24 ... band-pass filter, 25 ... shared device, 26 ... signal line, 27 ... band-pass filter, 28 ... reception amplifier, 29 ... demodulator, 30 ... … 2 frequency divider, 31… Phase comparator, 32… Processor, 40… Pickup coil, 41… Common device, 42… Band filter, 43… Receiving amplifier, 44… Demodulator, 45… ... 2 divider, 46 ... Modulator, 47 ... Transmission amplifier, 48 ... Signal processor.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hideo Suzuki 1406 Hasunuma, Omiya City, Saitama Prefecture Yagi Antenna Co., Ltd. Omiya Factory (56) References JP-A-63-301309 (JP, A) JP-A-62- 204314 (JP, A) JP-A-2-50207 (JP, A) JP-A-60-20614 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G05D 1/02

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A signal line buried along a path of a mobile unit for guiding the mobile unit, a base station device connected to a center device, and a mobile unit coupled to the signal line by an electromagnetic coupler. A mobile device mounted on the mobile device, the signal line is used as a bidirectional data line, and a response signal is transmitted from the mobile device according to a command, and the return time of the response signal from each mobile device is measured to obtain distance information. And a means for transmitting the distance information or a command based on the distance information to each moving body from a center device. 2. The distance measuring and monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the base station device transmits a low frequency ranging reference signal to a signal line, and the mobile device performs the ranging at a designated time. A signal obtained by dividing the distance reference signal by a positive number is returned as a distance measurement response signal. The base station apparatus receives the distance measurement response signal, and converts the received distance measurement response signal and the distance measurement reference signal into a mobile unit. The time difference is detected by comparing the divided signal in the same way as
A moving object ranging monitoring system characterized by using a ranging method for converting into a distance. 3. The moving object ranging monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the moving object is a golf cart, and the moving object is transmitted / received to / from a wireless remote control device carried by the cart operator for stopping the starting of the cart. A moving object ranging monitoring system characterized by adding an input / output function of data relating to golf play.