Position detection system for use with agricultural and construction equipment

摘要

An apparatus for detecting the relative position of a remote object, such as a vehicle, upon a construction or agricultural site in cartesian, polar or other coordinates. A laser light beam is scanned in a circular path from a selected reference point at the site through a generally horizontal plane above the site. A pair of photo detectors which are spaced a selected distance are mounted to the remote object in the plane of the scanning beam. The beam is scanned at a constant velocity and the time of its alignment along a reference radial, and its interception with each of the two spaced photo detectors is detected and used to compute the position of the remote object.