SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LANDMARK SELECTION FOR NAVIGATION

• US 20130304383A1
• Filed: 05/11/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Bageshwar, Vibhor L., Ma, Yunqian, Rao, Shrikant
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/534
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1656 with passive imaging devices, e.g. cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for selecting landmarks for navigation. In one embodiment, a system comprises an IMU that provides inertial measurements for a vehicle and at least one image sensor that acquires measurements of the vehicle'"'"'s environment. The system also comprises a processing unit that calculates a navigation solution for the vehicle based on the inertial measurements, identifies a plurality of landmarks in the acquired measurements, and identifies a plurality of usable landmarks from the plurality of landmarks. The processing unit also selects a subset of useable landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks such that the subset of landmarks has a smaller dilution of precision (DOP) than other possible subsets of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, and calculates an updated navigation solution from the subset of landmarks. The DOP is an amplification factor of measurement errors derived from the geometry of the subset of useable landmarks.

Claims

1. A vision based navigation system, the system comprising:

an inertial measurement unit configured to provide inertial measurements for a vehicle;

at least one image sensor configured to acquire measurements of the environment of the vehicle;

one or more processing units configured to;

calculate a navigation solution for the vehicle based on the inertial measurements;

identify a plurality of landmarks in the acquired measurements;

identify a plurality of usable landmarks from the plurality of landmarks;

select a subset of useable landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks such that the subset of landmarks has a smaller dilution of precision than other possible subsets of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, wherein the dilution of precision is an amplification factor of measurement errors derived from the geometry of the subset of useable landmarks; and

calculate an updated navigation solution based on the subset of landmarks.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage medium configured to store the plurality of landmarks.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one image sensor acquires three-dimensional measurements of the environment.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one image sensor acquires two-dimensional measurements of the environment.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

calculate landmark position estimates using landmarks stored in a storage medium

create three-dimensional measurements for the plurality of landmarks from the landmark position estimates and the two-dimensional measurements.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to order landmarks in the subset of landmarks according to the effect of the position of the landmark measurement on the dilution of precision.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of landmarks in the subset of landmarks is less than a landmark threshold.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the landmark threshold is determined by the number of landmarks for which the processing unit can use to compute corrections for the navigation solution of the vehicle within a time period.

9. A method for vision based navigation of a vehicle, the method comprising:

calculating a predicted navigation solution for the vehicle from inertial measurements of the motion of the vehicle;

acquiring measurements of the environment containing the vehicle;

identifying a plurality of landmarks from the acquired measurements;

identifying a plurality of useable landmarks from the plurality of landmarks;

selecting a subset of useable landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, wherein the subset of landmarks has a smaller dilution of precision than other possible subsets of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, wherein the dilution of precision is an amplification factor of measurement errors derived from the geometry of the subset of useable landmarks; and

calculating an updated navigation solution based on the subset of landmarks.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining whether the acquired measurements are at least one of:

two-dimensional measurements; and

three-dimensional measurements.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

calculating landmark position estimates from landmarks stored in a storage medium;

creating three-dimensional measurements of the identified plurality of landmarks from the landmark position estimates contained within the navigation solution and the two-dimensional measurements.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising ordering landmarks in the subset of landmarks according to the effect of the landmark measurements on the dilution of precision.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising discarding landmarks in the set of landmarks based on the ordering of landmarks.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of landmarks in the subset of landmarks is less than or equal to a landmark threshold.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising using the plurality of useable landmarks as the subset of landmarks when the number of landmarks in the plurality of useable landmarks is less than or equal to the landmark threshold.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein a useable landmark in the plurality of useable landmarks is a landmark identified in the acquired measurements that is associated with a previously identified landmark, wherein the previously identified landmark was identified from a previous measurement of the environment that was obtained before the acquired measurement.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether the at least one landmark contains new landmarks;

when the at least one landmark fails to contain new landmarks, computing corrections for the navigation solution using a previously identified set of landmarks.

18. A system for correcting inertial measurements, the system comprising:

at least one image sensor configured to acquire measurements of an environment;

a processing unit configured to;

extract a plurality of landmarks from the acquired measurements;

identify a plurality of useable landmarks in the plurality of landmarks,

wherein a useable landmark is a landmark identified in the acquired measurements that is associated with a previously identified landmark, wherein the previously identified landmark was identified in a previous measurement of the environment;

identify a subset of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, where the number of landmarks in the subset of landmarks is less than a landmark threshold and the subset of landmarks has a smaller dilution of precision than other possible subsets of landmarks from the plurality of useable landmarks, wherein the dilution of precision is an amplification factor of measurement errors derived from the geometry of the subset of useable landmarks; and

calculate corrections to a navigation solution calculated based on the inertial measurements.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing unit is further configured to order landmarks in the subset of landmarks according to the effect of the position of the landmark on the dilution of precision.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the number of landmarks in the subset of landmarks is less than a landmark threshold, wherein the landmark threshold is determined by the number of landmarks for which the processing unit can use to compute corrections for the position estimate of the vehicle within a time period.