3D vehicle localizing using geoarcs

A method of spatial localization, comprising:

• acquiring from a sensor supported by a first vehicle, an image of a portion of a physical surface configuration, from a position spaced away from the physical surface configuration;
• identifying features in the acquired image;
• associating identified features in the acquired image with identified features in a reference representation of the portion of the physical surface configuration;
• selecting a plurality of pairs of features in the acquired image having corresponding identified pairs of features in the reference representation;
• for each selected feature pair in the acquired image,
• determining an angle of view between the features of the feature pair, and
• generating a three-dimensional geoarc associating the determined angle of view and the feature pair in the reference representation corresponding to the selected feature pair;
• identifying locations where the geoarcs for the selected feature pairs overlap;
• selecting a location in the reference representation corresponding to where the geoarcs overlap the most;
• and
• modifying the selected location according to a position of a second vehicle relative to the first vehicle to obtain a location of the second vehicle.

A group of vehicles, comprising:

• a plurality of vehicles;
• a first vehicle including a sensor configured to produce an image including a portion of a physical surface of each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles from a position spaced away from the plurality of vehicles, and a data processing system communicatively coupled to the sensor, the data processing system configured to:
• acquire from the sensor an image including a portion of a physical surface of each vehicle of a subset of the group of vehicles, from a position spaced away from the subset of the group of vehicles;
• identify features in the acquired image;
• associate identified features in the acquired image with identified features in a three-dimensional reference representation of the plurality of vehicles;
• selecting a plurality of pairs of features in the acquired image having corresponding identified pairs of features in the reference representation;
• for each selected feature pair in the acquired image,
• determine an angle of view between the features of the feature pair, and
• generate a three-dimensional geoarc associating the determined angle of view and the feature pair in the reference representation corresponding to the selected feature pair;
• and
• identify locations where the geoarcs for the selected feature pairs overlap.