System and method for collaborative navigation

A method of collaborative navigation, the method comprising:

• providing at least a first mobile unit and a second mobile unit, each of the mobile units including:
• at least one inertial measurement unit;
• at least one environment sensor that detects one or more objects in an environment;
• a navigator module that receives inertial data from the inertial measurement unit;
• an object characterization module in operative communication with the environment sensor and the navigator module;
• and
• a common object geo-locator module in operative communication with the object characterization module in each mobile unit, the common object geo-locator module operative to perform common object extraction from descriptor information, perform correlation between objects to determine common objects, and determine a best estimate of the common object location and uncertainty;
• inputting sensor data related to a target object into the object characterization module in each mobile unit from the inertial measurement unit and the environment sensor of the respective mobile unit;
• inputting descriptor information related to the target object from the object characterization module in each mobile unit into the common object geo-locator modules of each mobile unit, the descriptor information including object data, object features, object location, and object uncertainty;
• exchanging geo-reference information related to the target object between the mobile units;
• and
• determining a best estimate of the geo-reference of the target object.

A method of collaborative navigation, the method comprising:

• deploying at least a first mobile unit and a second mobile unit in a location of one or more target objects, the first and second mobile units each comprising at least one inertial measurement unit and at least one environment sensor;
• inputting sensor data related to the one or more target objects into an object characterization module in each of the mobile units from the inertial measurement unit and the environment sensor in each of the mobile units;
• inputting descriptor information related to the one or more target objects from the object characterization module in each of the mobile units into a common object geo-locator module in each of the mobile units, the descriptor information including object data, object features, object location, and object uncertainty, wherein the common object geo-locator module in each of the mobile units performs common object extraction from the descriptor information, performs correlation between objects to determine common objects, and determines a best estimate of the common object location and uncertainty;
• exchanging geo-reference information related to the one or more target objects between the first and second mobile units;
• and
• determining a best estimate of the geo-reference of the one or more target objects.