US6487500B2 — GPS vehicle collision avoidance warning and contr…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 356 words

A computer controlled collision avoidance and warning method comprising the acts of: receiving continuously from a network of satellites on a first communication link at one of a plurality of vehicles GPS ranging signals for initially accurately determining the one vehicle's position on a surface; receiving continuously at the one vehicle on a second communication link from one of a plurality of stations having a known fixed position on the surface DGPS auxiliary range signals, including correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals and pseudolite signals for assistance in making further measurements for still further improving the accuracy of the GPS ranging signals and of determining the one vehicle's position on the surface; determining continuously at the one vehicle from the GPS, DGPS, and pseudolite signals the one vehicle's kinematic tracking position on the surface with centimeter accuracy, providing information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle derived from conventional image analysis systems carried on the one vehicle; communicating the one vehicle's status information including the information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle and the kinematic tracking position to each other one of the plurality of vehicles and to the one station or one of a plurality of control centers; analyzing the information descriptive of the particular hazards and objects and analyzing the kinematic tracking positions and the status information to identify and evaluate the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; determining in a fuzzy logic associative memory the one vehicle's expert driving response relative to the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; generating expert driving response control signals for actuating a plurality of control systems of the one vehicle in a coordinated manner; intelligibly indicating a warning of the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; and coordinating actuating the control systems of the one vehicle with the control signals to operated the one vehicle laterally and longitudinally in real time to avoid contact with the particular hazards and objects in the pathway.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 356 words

A computer controlled collision avoidance and warning method comprising the acts of: receiving continuously from a network of satellites on a first communication link at one of a plurality of vehicles GPS ranging signals for initially accurately determining the one vehicle's position on a surface; receiving continuously at the one vehicle on a second communication link from one of a plurality of stations having a known fixed position on the surface DGPS auxiliary range signals, including correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals and pseudolite signals for assistance in making further measurements for still further improving the accuracy of the GPS ranging signals and of determining the one vehicle's position on the surface; determining continuously at the one vehicle from the GPS, DGPS, and pseudolite signals the one vehicle's kinematic tracking position on the surface with centimeter accuracy, providing information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle derived from conventional image analysis systems carried on the one vehicle; communicating the one vehicle's status information including the information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle and the kinematic tracking position to each other one of the plurality of vehicles and to the one station or one of a plurality of control centers; analyzing the information descriptive of the particular hazards and objects and analyzing the kinematic tracking positions and the status information to identify and evaluate the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; determining in a fuzzy logic associative memory the one vehicle's expert driving response relative to the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; generating expert driving response control signals for actuating a plurality of control systems of the one vehicle in a coordinated manner; intelligibly indicating a warning of the particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle; and coordinating actuating the control systems of the one vehicle with the control signals to operated the one vehicle laterally and longitudinally in real time to avoid contact with the particular hazards and objects in the pathway.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 21 words

The method of claim 1 where the pseudolite signals include carrier phase signals and the further measurements include ambiguity resolution measurements.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 29 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the first communication link is a GPS receiver and the second communication link is a GPS transceiver each operating on separate predetermined frequencies.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 15 words

The method of claim 1 including a third satellite communication link for auxiliary control information.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 1 including pathway scanning technology providing e information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the vehicle.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 13 words

The method of claim 2 wherein the pathway scanning technology comprises television technology.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing act includes: analyzing the one vehicle's attitude; and wherein the act of determining the one vehicle's expert response further comprises the act of: attitude compensating the expert response.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating act further comprises the act of: communicating on the second communication link.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 30 words

The method of claim 4 wherein the communicating act further comprises the act of: communicating on a third control communication link via a separate control transceiver in the one vehicle.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 17 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the kinematic tracking position information includes position, velocity and acceleration Vectors.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 107 words

The method of claim 1 wherein said GPS ranging signals; said DGPS auxiliary range signals, including said correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals and pseudolite signals for assistance in making further measurements for still further improving the accuracy of the GPS ranging signals and of determining the one vehicle's position; and said information descriptive of particular hazards and objects in the pathway of the one vehicle and the kinematic tracking position of the one vehicle are received from another one or each other one of the plurality of vehicles, the one station, one of the control centers or a communications satellite.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 29 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating act further comprises the act of: communicating using a speech synthesizer computer which recognizes the voice of the one vehicle's operator.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 12 further comprising the act of: displaying on a heads up display in the one vehicle a response to the one operator's speech received in the one vehicle.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 84 words

The method of claim 1 further comprising the acts of: detecting multiple particular hazards and objects in the pathway relative to the vehicle; wherein the analyzing act includes analyzing all particular hazards and objects and ranking all potential hazards and objects for determining the most effective avoidance strategy; and wherein the act of determining the one's expert response further comprises the act of: determining with the fuzzy logic associative memory and fuzzy logic algorithms one vehicle's expert response relative to each hazard and object.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 51 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the detecting act includes: detecting the hazards and objects by scanning with one or more television cameras supported on the one vehicle; and wherein the analyzing act includes: processing and analyzing digital signals indicative of video images detected by the one or more television cameras.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 57 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the detecting act includes: detecting the hazards and objects by scanning with one or more radar-based ranging mechanisms supported on the one vehicle; wherein the analyzing act includes: processing and analyzing digital signals indicative of the bearing, distance, and elevation to the hazards and objects detected by the radar-based ranging mechanisms.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the detecting act further comprises: detecting the hazards and objects on or about the pathway in the vicinity of the one vehicle by scanning a motion sensing device embedded in the pathway and transmitting to the one vehicle signals indicative of the bearing, distance and elevation of the detected hazards and objects relative to a reference.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the hazards and objects include fixed or moving, or known or unknown obstacles.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 45 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the communicating act includes: communicating the one vehicle's status information describing selected ones of the detected hazards and objects, and the receiving act includes: receiving the others' status information describing selected ones of the others' detected hazards and objects.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 27 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing act further comprises: analyzing inputs from the one vehicle's input describing characteristics of the operator of the one vehicle.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 30 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing act further comprises the act of: calculating a collision vector for each hazard and object in the pathway of the one vehicle.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 23 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the act of determining the one vehicle's expert response includes: determining a hazard and object avoidance maneuver.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 45 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the act of intelligibly indicating a warning further comprises the act of: warning the operator of the one vehicle's expert response, and wherein the coordinately actuating act further comprises coordinately actuating the control systems only with an imminent collision.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 29 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the warning act further comprises the act of: visually indicating the existence of a hazard or object in the pathway of the vehicle.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 24 wherein the act of visually indicating the existence of a hazard or object in the pathway of the vehicle further comprises the act of: displaying a visually perceptible symbol in the one vehicle.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 24 wherein the act of visually indicating further comprises the act of: displaying the relative position and motion between the one vehicle and a hazard and object in the pathway of the one vehicle.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the warning indicating act further comprises the act of: repeatedly actuating a horn system or a warning light system.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the warning indicating act further comprises the act of: generating sounds of select speech of warning of hazard or object in the pathway of the vehicle.

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 28 wherein the generating sounds of select speech act further comprises the act of: recommending the one vehicle's expert response.

Claim 31

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 29 wherein recommending the one vehicle's expert response act further comprises the act of: synthetically generating warning words of speech depending on the kind of expert response necessary to avoid the hazard or object.

Claim 32

Dependent Claim 46 words

The method of claim 2 wherein the coordinately activating step further comprises the act of: operating one or more of the following systems depending on the kind of expert response determined by the fuzzy logic associative memory and fuzzy logic algorithms; acceleration, steering and communication system.

Claim 33

Dependent Claim 15 words

The method of claim 1 further comprising the act of: repeatedly repeating the communicating act.

Claim 34

Dependent Claim 343 words

A GPS-based vehicle proximate detection method comprising the acts of: receiving continuously from a network of satellites on a first communication link at one of a plurality of vehicles GPS ranging signals for determining the one vehicle's position relative to a surface; receiving continuously at the one vehicle on a second communication link from one of a plurality of stations having a known fixed position on the surface DGPS auxiliary range correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals and pseudolite signals for assistance in making further measurements for still further improving the accuracy of the GPS ranging signals and of determining the one vehicle's position relative to surface; determining continuously at the one vehicle from the GPS, DGPS, and pseudolite signals the one's kinematic tracking position relative to the surface with centimeter accuracy; determining the one vehicle's attitude relative to a predetermined direction over the surface using multiple antennae supported on the extremities of the one vehicle coupled to the GPS receiver and phase comparing the GPS signals simultaneously received at the antennae; communicating the one vehicle's status information including the kinematic tracking position to each other one of the plurality of vehicles and to the one station or one of a plurality of control centers, and receiving at the one vehicle each of the others' of the plurality of vehicles status information including the others' kinematic tracking position; analyzing in a neural network the one vehicle's attitude, and the kinematic tracking positions and status information to identify and evaluate proximity of each other one of the plurality of vehicles relative to the one vehicle; determining in a fuzzy logic associative memory the one vehicle's attitude compensated expert response relative to each other vehicle; generating expert response control signals for actuating a plurality of control systems of the one vehicle in a coordinated manner; and coordinately actuating the control systems of the one vehicle with the control signals to operate the one vehicle laterally and longitudinally in real time relative to the proximate position of the other vehicles.

Claim 35

Dependent Claim 343 words

A GPS-based vehicle proximate detection method comprising the acts of: receiving continuously from a network of satellites on a first communication link at one of a plurality of vehicles GPS ranging signals for determining the one vehicle's position relative to a surface; receiving continuously at the one vehicle on a second communication link from one of a plurality of stations having a known fixed position on the surface DGPS auxiliary range correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals and pseudolite signals for assistance in making further measurements for still further improving the accuracy of the GPS ranging signals and of determining the one vehicle's position relative to surface; determining continuously at the one vehicle from the GPS, DGPS, and pseudolite signals the one's kinematic tracking position relative to the surface with centimeter accuracy; determining the one vehicle's attitude relative to a predetermined direction over the surface using multiple antennae supported on the extremities of the one vehicle coupled to the GPS receiver and phase comparing the GPS signals simultaneously received at the antennae; communicating the one vehicle's status information including the kinematic tracking position to each other one of the plurality of vehicles and to the one station or one of a plurality of control centers, and receiving at the one vehicle each of the others' of the plurality of vehicles status information including the others' kinematic tracking position; analyzing in a neural network the one vehicle's attitude, and the kinematic tracking positions and status information to identify and evaluate proximity of each other one of the plurality of vehicles relative to the one vehicle; determining in a fuzzy logic associative memory the one vehicle's attitude compensated expert response relative to each other vehicle; generating expert response control signals for actuating a plurality of control systems of the one vehicle in a coordinated manner; and coordinately actuating the control systems of the one vehicle with the control signals to operate the one vehicle laterally and longitudinally in real time relative to the proximate position of the other vehicles.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2005-11-25	2006-05-27	2006-11-26	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2009-11-25	2010-05-27	2010-11-26	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2013-11-25	2014-05-27	2014-11-26	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

GPS vehicle collision avoidance warning and control system and method

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