초록 ▼

A vehicle guidance system for a tractor has a horizontal scanning laser on the tractor and a target arranged to return the laser beam along its path. When returned laser light is detected, indicating alignment of the beam with the target, the angle of the beam relative to the tractor axis illustrate

A vehicle guidance system for a tractor has a horizontal scanning laser on the tractor and a target arranged to return the laser beam along its path. When returned laser light is detected, indicating alignment of the beam with the target, the angle of the beam relative to the tractor axis illustrates the steering correction required. The target has an array of beam reflecting elements patterned to define a target datum. Continuous low amplitude and relative high frequency scanning of the laser in a vertical direction provides a detector output which is indicative of the error between beam orientation and target datum.

대표청구항 ▼

A vehicle guidance means comprising: a laser for mounting on the vehicle; horizontal scanning means for scanning the laser beam horizontally; indicating means providing an output indicative of the orientation of the laser beam in a horizontal plane relative to the vehicle heading; a positionable fix

A vehicle guidance means comprising: a laser for mounting on the vehicle; horizontal scanning means for scanning the laser beam horizontally; indicating means providing an output indicative of the orientation of the laser beam in a horizontal plane relative to the vehicle heading; a positionable fixed target comprising a two-dimensional array of beam reversing means for returning an incident laser beam along the same path, the vertical depth of the array varying in the horizontal direction across the target; vertical scanning means for scanning the laser beam vertically over the target such that laser light is returned by the beams reversing means over an interval determined by the vertical depth of the array and is thereby indicative of the horizontal position of the beam relative to the target; detector means on the vehicle for detecting laser light returned from the target and for providing detector output representative thereof; and processor means for analyzing the detector output to determine the horizontal position of the laser beam relative to the target; whereby the output of the indicator means when the laser beam is determined to be at a known position relative to the target provides an indication of the vehicle heading in relative to the target.