Patent Application
20100292926
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a topographic surveying system and device. More particularly, this invention relates to a surveying system that can move along a road surface in tunnel or deep forest for collecting the datum of height varieties of the road.
2. Description of the Related Art
Land measurement and surveying for a wide variety of projects, such as residential development, building and road construction, and other civil engineering tasks, customarily involves extensive field surveys and preparation of detailed maps illustrating large amounts of precisely measured topographic and structural data.
When combined with computers and appropriate software, measurement accuracy and economy of data analysis may be realized. However, the conventional approaches to surveying, requiring at least two people, tripod with a surveying instrument mounted thereon and a leveling rod, is not easily adaptable in light of the afore-mentioned advances in the art. Further, it would be desirable to provide protection for the surveyors and their equipment, as well as providing a faster and more accurate establishment of position of the surveying instrument.
The method and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,732 issued on Feb. 20, 2001, is used to determine the tree-dimensional (x, y, z) coordinate position of the receiving position of a GPS antenna on an earth-moving machine or a vehicle, which determines the tilt of the machine or vehicle in real time, and utilizes this data to calculate the three-dimensional position of a point of the earth's surface disposed beneath the machine or vehicle. While the earth-moving machine or a vehicle is entering a tunnel or deep forest, the GPS antenna will receive no further information from the satellites, and this would cause the function of the surveying system and device to be terminated immediately.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a road topographic surveying system that permits the road topographic surveying work to be continuing even in a tunnel or deep forest area along a determined road or path. The road topographic surveying system comprises at least a vehicle, a horizontal angle sensor, an encoder, a micro-processor, a data storage, and display.
The vehicle has a wheel with a wheel radius (R) rotatably engaged with the road and coupled with the encoder. The encoder generates a rotate signal to the micro-processor at every predetermined graduations (n°) of the wheel rotation. Each time the micro-processor receives the rotate signals, acquires a instantaneous horizontal angle value from the horizontal angle sensor thereby to calculate a segment of moving length and a segment of height, and calculates an accumulated height and calculate an accumulated length of a point, stores the accumulated length, instantaneous horizontal angle value and the accumulated height into the data storage, and display the all in the display correspondingly and sequentially.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The following description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention and sets forth the best modes contemplated by the inventors of carrying out their invention. Various modifications, however, will remain readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
Turning to
The vehicle 11 moves from a start point 91 to an end point 92, typically has a wheel with a determined wheel radius (R) and rotatably engages with the road 90 and coupled with the encoder 13.
The encoder 13 generates a rotate signal to the micro-processor 14 at every predetermined graduations (n°) of the wheel rotation. The encoder 13 may be any traditional device for detecting the wheel rotation and generating the rotate signal at every predetermined graduations (n°) of the wheel rotation. The predetermined graduations (n°) may be selected from a range from one degree (1°) to three hundred and sixty degrees (360°) that the wheel moves the vehicle 11 a desired segment of moving length (ΔL) which is larger than one centimeter.
The encoder 13 may be coupled to the micro-processor 14 and comprise a grating disk 130 with grating slots, a light source 131 and a light detector 132. The grating disk 130 is driven by the wheel shaft (not shown) of the vehicle 11 directly or via a gear system. A light beam emits from the light source 131, passing through one of the grating slots to the light detector 132. The light detector 132 coupled to the micro-processor 14 detects the light beam and generate rotate signal to the micro-processor 14 at the predetermined graduations (n°).
The micro-processor 14 couples with the other elements of the system. Once the micro-processor 14 received a rotate signals, acquires a instantaneous horizontal angle value (α) from the horizontal angle sensor 12 thereby to calculate a segment of moving length (ΔL) and a segment of height (Δh), calculate an accumulated height (H), calculate an accumulated length (L) of a point, then stores the accumulated height (H) and length (L) in the data storage 16, and display all the accumulated lengths (L), instantaneous horizontal angle values (α) and the accumulated heights (H) in the display 17 correspondingly and sequentially.
The display 17 can be of any traditional LCD display, preferably, a touch-sensitive display for the operator to input the wheel radius value (R) in the system 1 and manipulate the moving and stop of the vehicle 11.
Turning now to
The road topographic surveying system 1 may further comprise a GPS receiver 16 for acquiring the position information to combine with the accumulated lengths (L), the accumulated heights (H) and store in the data storage 15 point by point, correspondingly and sequentially. Such GPS receiver 16 may utilize signals from global positioning satellites as well as a differential signal from a local reference receiver of known position coordinates to generate position coordinate information to centimeter accuracy.
Preferably, the road topographic surveying system 1 may further comprise a key-input unit 18, including an interrupt button, a start button, a stop button, and/or a set of function buttons, a numerical keypad and an alphabet keypad. The operator may push the start button to moving the vehicle 11 at the start point 91, and push the stop button to terminate the operation of the system 1.
A method of the system 1 illustrated in
a segment of length (ΔL)=(2πR)(n°/360);
a segment of height (Δh)=(ΔL)sin α;
an accumulated height (H)=(H0); and
an accumulated length (L)=(L0)+(ΔL);
a step 24 for storing the accumulated height (H) and the accumulated length (L) in the data storage 15 as Hi and Li correspondingly and sequentially, in accordance with the counter value (i); a step 25 for determination of stop of the system 1, if it is not yet to stop, go step 26 for resetting the temporary accumulated height (H0) equals to the accumulated height (H), the temporary accumulated length (L0) equals to the accumulated length (L), the counter value (i) added by one (1); if in step 25, it is stopped by the operator with pushing a stop button of the key-input unit 18, the step 27 is displaying the position coordinates in the form of: (L1, α1, H1), (L2, α2, H2), (L3, α3, H3) . . . , (Li, αi, Hi) on the display 17 and/or may be printed or plotted on a paper or suitable media as illustrated in
A slightly modified method of the system 1 for implementing the GPS receiver 16 for road topographic survey over an open site is illustrated in
a segment of length (ΔL)=(2πR)(n°/360);
a segment of height (Δh)=(ΔL)sin α; and
an accumulated height (H)=(H0);
a step 34 for receiving an instantaneous position information via a GPS receiver 16; a step 35 for storing the accumulated height (H) in the data storage 15 as Hi sequentially in accordance with the counter value (i); a step 25 for determination of stop, if it is not stopped, then go a step 37 for resetting the temporary accumulated height (H0) equals to the accumulated height (H), and let the counter value (i) added by one (1); if in step 36, it is stopped by the operator with pushing a stop button of the key-input unit 18, a step 38 is displaying the position coordinates in the form of: (X1, Y1, H1), (X2, Y2, H2), (X3, Y3, H3) . . . , (Xi, Yi, Hi) on the display 17 and/or may also be printed or plotted on a paper or suitable media as illustrated in
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of the just-described preferred embodiment can be configured without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
