Real time position and orientation tracker

A method of tracking the position and/or orientation of an object in an environment, the method including:

• a) mounting at least one camera to the object so that at least some of a plurality of targets are viewable by the at least one camera when the object is located in an operating position in which its position and/or orientation is to be determined;
• b) mounting a camera array to the object, the camera array including a plurality of spaced apart cameras each having a field of view with a central axis, with the central axis of adjacent spaced apart cameras being divergently spaced by a predetermined fixed angle;
• wherein the fields of view of adjacent cameras are at least partially overlapping so that at least some cameras can each view one or more common targets;
• and,
• c) the method further including in one or more electronic processing devices:
• i) determining target position data indicative of the relative spatial position of the targets;
• ii) receiving image data indicative of an image from the at least one camera, said image including at least some of the targets;
• and,
• iii) processing the image data to:
• (1) identify one or more targets in the image;
• (2) determine pixel array coordinates corresponding to a position of the one or more targets in the image;
• and,
• iv) using the processed image data to determine the position and/or orientation of the object by triangulation.