The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 04, 1978
Filed:
Dec. 16, 1975
Rudolph D Schalow, Fort Wayne, IN (US);
Energystics, Fort Wayne, IN (US);
Abstract
A vehicle guidance system is disclosed that is suitable for guiding a vehicle or person along a straight line navigational aspect with signaling and processing typical of hyperbolic navigational systems, for example, in certain farming operations where the farm vehicle utilized must repeatedly be caused to traverse an unmarked field in substantially straight parallel paths that are evenly spaced with respect to one another, such as in fertilizing the field. An electronic navigation system is utilized which includes a transmitter and a receiver positioned upon the navigating vehicle and a pair of repeating transmitter/receivers spaced with respect to one another a known or measured distance and along a line normal to the intended straight line path to be followed by the vehicle. The transmitter causes each repeater to be alternately energized and the resulting signal is detected at the vehicle mounted receiver and the phase difference between each transmitted and received signal is measured. The measured signals are then used to determine an error signal if the vehicle has departed from a predetermined straight line path. A typical use in a farming operation is to position two repeaters at one edge of a field and then cause the farm vehicle to repeatedly traverse the field in straight lines that are equally spaced with respect to one another a distance so as to give substantially equal coverage, such as, for example, to substantially evenly fertilize a field.