Apparatus and method for providing vehicular positioning
AssigneeTopcon Positioning Systems, Inc.
InventorsDmitry Vitalievich Tatarnikov, Leonid Valerianovich Edelman, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Pimenov, Michail Nikolaevich Smirnov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich Penkrat
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Abstract
A vehicular positioning system utilizing multiple optical cameras having contiguous fields of view for reading coded markers having pre-determined positions for determining the position of vehicle inside a structure with a high degree of accuracy. The vehicle positioning system provides for the direct installation and use of a positioning apparatus on a vehicle with a limited number of coded markers to determine the vehicle's position to within millimeter level accuracy.
Claims23
A method for determining a position of an object located within a particular environment, the method comprising:
- acquiring, from an image acquisition module, a set of images of at least three coded visual markers, each coded visual marker having a fixed location within the particular environment, and each image of the set of images associated with at least one respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers, the image acquisition module acquiring the set of images from a plurality of cameras;
- acquiring inertial sensor data associated with the object;
- extracting from the set of images a set of geometric features associated with each of the respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers;
- predicting, from a prediction module, a position of one of the respective different one coded visual markers in a particular frame of the image associated with the one respective different one coded visual marker;
- and
- determining the position of the object using the inertial sensor data in combination with the set of geometric features associated with each respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers.
A positioning apparatus for determining a position of an object located within a particular environment comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having a program that stores computer program instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations for:
- acquiring, from an image acquisition module, a set of images of at least three coded visual markers, each coded visual marker having a fixed location within the particular environment, and each image of the set of images associated with at least one respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers, the image acquisition module acquiring the set of images from a plurality of cameras, each camera of the plurality of cameras having an associated field of view such that the associated fields of views of the plurality of cameras are contiguous;
- acquiring inertial sensor data associated with the object;
- extracting from the set of images a set of geometric features associated with each of the respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers;
- predicting, from a prediction module, a position of one of the respective different one coded visual markers in a particular frame of the image associated with the one respective different one coded visual marker;
- and
- determining the position of the object using the inertial sensor data in combination with the set of geometric features associated with each respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer program instructions for determining a position of a vehicle traversing a particular environment, the computer program instructions, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- acquiring, from an image acquisition module, a set of images of at least three coded visual markers, each coded visual marker having a fixed location within the particular environment, and each image of the set of images associated with at one respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers, the image acquisition module acquiring the set of images from a plurality of cameras, each camera of the plurality of cameras having an associated field of view such that the associated fields of views of the plurality of cameras are contiguous;
- acquiring inertial sensor data associated with the vehicle;
- extracting from the set of images a set of geometric features associated with each of the respective different one coded visual markers of the at least three coded visual markers;
- predicting, from a prediction module, a position of one of the respective different one coded visual markers in a particular frame of the image associated with the one respective different one coded visual marker;
- and
- determining the position of the vehicle using the inertial sensor data in combination with the set of geometric features associated with each respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers.
An apparatus for determining a position of an object located within a particular environment comprising:
- an image acquisition module for acquiring a set of images of at least three coded visual markers, each coded visual marker having a fixed location within the particular environment, and each image of the set of images associated with at least one respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers, the image acquisition module acquiring the set of images from a plurality of cameras, each camera of the plurality of cameras having an associated field of view such that the associated fields of views of the plurality of cameras are contiguous;
- an inertial sensors module for acquiring inertial sensor data associated with the object;
- a markers detection module for extracting from the set of images a set of geometric features associated with each of the respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers;
- a prediction module for predicting a position of one of the respective different one coded visual markers in a particular frame of the image associated with the one respective different one coded visual marker;
- and
- a coordinates and positioning module for determining the position of the object using the inertial sensor data in combination with the set of geometric features associated with each respective different one coded visual marker of the at least three coded visual markers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.