Method and apparatus to estimate vehicle position and recognized landmark positions using GPS and camera
First Claim
1. A method of estimating a platform position with high accuracy, comprising the following steps of:
- receiving GPS signals from satellites and processing the GPS signals for producing position estimation information;
obtaining image data of landmarks surrounding the platform through a camera mounted on the platform;
conducting an image recognition process on the image data thereby extracting attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks;
registering the attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks in a landmark database thereby establishing and updating the landmark database; and
incorporating the attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks into the position estimation information produced from the GPS signals, thereby improving accuracy of the position estimate.
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Abstract
A navigation system with a capability of estimating positions of the platform vehicle and recognized landmarks using satellite information and camera measurements is disclosed. One aspect is to represent a landmark by one or few representative features by executing image recognition and feature extraction to find representative features inside the recognized landmark. Another aspect is to re-identify the recognized landmarks in the landmark database correlating the landmark attributes obtained by image recognition and mathematical feature characteristics obtained by feature extraction with the corresponding data in the landmark database. A further aspect is to enhance navigation accuracy through the Kalman filter architecture with additional imagery measurements of landmarks whose positions are known or previously estimated. According to the aspects noted above: (1) navigation accuracy improves with augmented imagery measurements; (2) a database of recognizable landmark attributes and associated feature characteristics can be created in real-time; (3) by re-visiting the same landmarks, navigation accuracy improves and the landmark database will be re-calibrated and augmented with new landmark data.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of estimating a platform position with high accuracy, comprising the following steps of:
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receiving GPS signals from satellites and processing the GPS signals for producing position estimation information; obtaining image data of landmarks surrounding the platform through a camera mounted on the platform; conducting an image recognition process on the image data thereby extracting attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks; registering the attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks in a landmark database thereby establishing and updating the landmark database; and incorporating the attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks into the position estimation information produced from the GPS signals, thereby improving accuracy of the position estimate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An integrated imagery/navigation system for estimating a platform position, comprising:
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a GPS receiver for GPS measurements by receiving GPS signals from satellites and processing the GPS signals for producing position estimation information; a camera for imagery measurements by retrieving image data of landmarks surrounding the platform; means for conducting an image recognition process on the image data thereby extracting attributes and feature characteristics of the landmarks; and a Kalman filter for conducting a Kalman filtering procedure on the position estimation information from the GPS receiver and the image data retrieved by the camera, thereby improving accuracy of the position estimate. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification