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US 2021/0174097 A1Published application
Visual-Inertial Positional Awareness for Autonomous and Non-Autonomous Mapping
AssigneeTrifo, Inc.
InventorsGrace TSAI, Shaoshan LIU, Zhe ZHANG
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The described positional awareness techniques employing visual-inertial sensory data gathering and analysis hardware with reference to specific example implementations implement improvements in the use of sensors, techniques and hardware design that can enable specific embodiments to provide positional awareness to machines with improved speed and accuracy.
Claims20
A system including:
- a mobile platform having disposed thereon:
- at least one camera;
- a multi-axis inertial measuring unit (IMU);
- and
- an interface to a host including one or more processors coupled to memory, the memory loaded with computer instructions to guide the mobile platform that includes the camera with distance calculation and the multi-axis inertial measuring unit (IMU), the instructions, when executed on the processors, implement actions comprising:
- receiving sets of image data including feature points and pose information, the pose information including a location of the mobile platform and view of the camera that captured the image data, the sets referred to collectively as keyrigs;
- reviewing the keyrigs to select keyrig content to include in a point cloud of features, based upon comparisons of keyrig content with content of other selected keyrigs subject to one or more thresholds;
- for selected keyrigs, (a) triangulating new feature points in the keyrig using feature points of keyrigs previously added to the point cloud of features to obtain feature points in a coordinate system of the platform, and (b) aligning coordinates of the feature points in the point cloud of features to a coordinate system having a z-axis aligned with gravity;
- creating a multilayered hybrid point grid from the feature points selected for the point cloud of features, using at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid;
- and
- responsive to receiving a command to travel to a location, using the at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid to plan a path of travel to a location commanded and contemporaneously using the point cloud of features while traveling the planned path to avoid colliding with obstructions.
8 more elements
A method of guiding a mobile device that includes a camera with distance calculation and multi-axis inertial measuring unit (IMU) the method including:
- receiving sets of image data including feature points and pose information, the pose information including a location of the mobile device and view of the camera that captured the image data, the sets referred to collectively as keyrigs;
- reviewing the keyrigs to select keyrig content to include in a point cloud of features, based upon comparisons of keyrig content with content of other selected keyrigs subject to one or more thresholds;
- for selected keyrigs, (a) triangulating new feature points in the keyrig using feature points of keyrigs previously added to the point cloud of features to obtain feature points in a coordinate system of the device, and (b) aligning coordinates of the feature points in the point cloud of features to a coordinate system having a z-axis aligned with gravity;
- creating a multilayered hybrid point grid from the feature points selected for the point cloud of features, using at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid;
- and
- responsive to receiving a command to travel to a location, using the at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid occupancy grid to plan a path of travel to a location commanded and contemporaneously using the point cloud of features while traveling the planned path to avoid colliding with obstructions.
3 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium impressed with computer program instructions to guide a mobile device that includes a camera with distance calculation and multi-axis inertial measuring unit (IMU), the instructions, when executed on a processor, implement a method comprising:
- receiving sets of image data including feature points and pose information, the pose information including a location of the mobile device and view of the camera that captured the image data, the sets referred to collectively as keyrigs;
- reviewing the keyrigs to select keyrig content to include in a point cloud of features, based upon comparisons of keyrig content with content of other selected keyrigs subject to one or more thresholds;
- for selected keyrigs, (a) triangulating new feature points in the keyrig using feature points of keyrigs previously added to the point cloud of features to obtain feature points in a coordinate system of the device, and (b) aligning coordinates of the feature points in the point cloud of features to a coordinate system having a z-axis aligned with gravity;
- creating a multilayered hybrid point grid from the feature points selected for the point cloud of features, using at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid;
- and
- responsive to receiving a command to travel to a location, using the at least one layer of a multilayered 2D occupancy grid to plan a path of travel to a location commanded and contemporaneously using the point cloud of features while traveling the planned path to avoid colliding with obstructions.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.