System and Method for Localizing Two or More Moving Nodes

• US 20160025502A1
• Filed: 06/09/2015
• Published: 01/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robotic Research OPCO LLC
• Original Assignee: Karl Murphy
• Inventors: Lacaze, Alberto Daniel, Murphy, Karl, Smith, Kyle
• Granted Patent: US 9,746,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position

Abstract

UMAPS is a multifaceted system that can be robot-mounted, human-worn, or canine carried. UMAPS produces real-time, 3D mapping and localization for the user as they move throughout a GPS-denied environment (e.g. buildings, caves, or tunnels). An Operator Control Unit (OCU) displays information collected by UMAPS; 2D floorplans; 3D textured-enriched surfaces of the structure'"'"'s interior; and the location of the users within that structure. UMAPS has an open architecture that allows it to function with any OCU. UMAPS has three distinct subsystems: obstacle maps for robot mobility, mapping, and positioning

Claims

1. A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangibly embodying program instructions executable by the computer machine to perform method steps for a method for a distributed system for localizing two or more moving nodes, the method steps comprising:

providing inertial components on the moving nodes;

measuring positional relationships between nodes;

enabling communication device between nodes;

providing and associating a computational device with each node;

making positional relationship measurements;

providing a filtering algorithm and

determining, by the filtering mechanism, the position of the nodes using the inertial measurements and the positional relationship measurements.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising an abstraction step that encodes absolute and relative measurements into a partial constraint.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating one or more mapping sensors co-located with one or more nodes;

and

building build a map from the mapping sensors, relationship measurements, inertial measurements, and filtering mechanism.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

measuring the positional relationship between nodes is done by ranging radios between the nodes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

measuring the positional relationship between nodes is done by wireless ranging between nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating a GPS receiver at one or more nodes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

placing an anchor node at a point with a known location;

and

using the location of the node by the filtering mechanism.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

placing nodes at one or more arbitrary points that will be visited in multiple instances;

and

determining, by the filtering mechanism, the location of the point and therefore the location of the nodes when the nodes were at the point.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating sensors with one or more nodes that can detect the positional relationship to one or more features in the surroundings where the location of a feature is known a priori to some accuracy;

detecting one or more features in the surroundings by the co-located sensors; and

determining the positional relationship to the feature and the position and accuracy of the feature to aid in determining node positions by the filtering mechanism.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating sensors with one or more nodes that that can detect the positional relationship to one or more features in the surroundings;

calculating the positional relationship of the node to the one or more features in the surroundings;

using the positional relationship to the feature from multiple passes of the same node by the filtering mechanism to determine node position; and

determining node position.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating sensors with one or more nodes that that can detect the positional relationship to one or more features in the surroundings;

calculating the positional relationship of the node to the one or more features in the surroundings;

using the positional relationship to the feature from multiple passes of multiple nodes by the filtering mechanism to determine node position; and

determining node position.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating sensors with one or more nodes that can detect the positional relationship to one or more features in the surroundings;

detecting one or more features in the surrounding by the co-located sensors; and

using the positional relationship to the feature from multiple passes of the same node by the filtering mechanism to determine node position; and

determining node position.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

co-locating sensors with one or more nodes that can detect the positional relationship to one or more features in the surroundings;

detecting one or more features in the surrounding by the co-located sensors; and

using the positional relationship to the feature from multiple passes of multiple nodes by the filtering mechanism to determine node position; and

determining node position.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of

providing a display screen;

and

allowing each node to know its location and the location of other nodes.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of

generating a partial or fused map from the locations of the nodes;

and

displaying the partial or fused maps on the display screen.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of

determining, by the system, the node location of other nodes that it has communications to in the event when communications are not working or are intermittent to the other nodes.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of

re-incorporating one or more nodes that come back into communications or have data relayed through other nodes to the system.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of

selecting which data not to use in the filter.