Methods and systems for navigating a vehicle including a novel fiducial marker system
OwnerGerard Dirk Smitsinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems for navigating a vehicle along a surface employ a scanner to scan a light beam over the surface; employ light reflected by one or more fiducial markers on the surface onto pixels of a receiver to determine a spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers on the surface; and compare the spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers with a predetermined map of the fiducial markers to determine a location of the vehicle.
Claims30
A method for navigating a vehicle along a surface, the method comprising:
- employing a scanner to scan a strobed light beam over the surface, wherein the strobed light beam provides strobed illumination of a plurality of lines across the surface to reduce motion blur, and wherein a stripe is formed by at least a portion of the plurality of lines having a width and a length across a field of view on a portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle;
- employing light reflected by one or more fiducial markers on the surface onto pixels of a receiver to determine a spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers on the surface;
- comparing the spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers with a predetermined map of the fiducial markers to determine a location of the vehicle;
- and
- detecting a reflection of the stripe from the portion of the surface with the receiver, wherein the stripe's reflection is employed to determine three-dimensional spatial information and visual contrast information that is added in real time to the predetermined map for the portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle.
A system to navigate a vehicle along a surface, comprising:
- a scanner configured to scan light over a field of view;
- a receiver that comprises a plurality of pixels configured to detect light;
- one or more memory devices that store instructions;
- and
- one or more processor devices that execute the stored instructions to perform actions, including:
- employing a scanner to scan a strobed light beam over the surface, wherein the strobed light beam provides strobed illumination of a plurality of lines across the surface to reduce motion blur, and wherein a stripe is formed by at least a portion of the plurality of lines having a width and a length across a field of view on a portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle;
- employing light reflected by one or more fiducial markers on the surface onto pixels of a receiver to determine a spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers on the surface;
- comparing the spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers with a predetermined map of the fiducial markers to determine a location of the vehicle;
- and
- detecting a reflection of the stripe from the portion of the surface with the receiver, wherein the stripe's reflection is employed to determine three-dimensional spatial information and visual contrast information that is added in real time to the predetermined map for the portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle.
A non-transitory processor readable storage media that includes instructions for navigating a vehicle along a surface, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processor devices cause the one or more processor devices to perform actions, comprising:
- employing a scanner to scan a strobed light beam over the surface, wherein the strobed light beam provides strobed illumination of a plurality of lines across the surface to reduce motion blur, and wherein a stripe is formed by at least a portion of the plurality of lines having a width and a length across a field of view on a portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle;
- employing light reflected by one or more fiducial markers on the surface onto pixels of a receiver to determine a spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers on the surface;
- comparing the spatial arrangement of the fiducial markers with a predetermined map of the fiducial markers to determine a location of the vehicle;
- and
- detecting a reflection of the stripe from the portion of the surface with the receiver, wherein the stripe's reflection is employed to determine three-dimensional spatial information and visual contrast information that is added in real time to the predetermined map for the portion of the surface that is directly ahead of the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.