Systems and methods for tracking location of movable target object

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9043146-B2
Application number	US-201313921246-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2013
Priority date	Jun 19, 2013
Publication date	May 26, 2015
Grant date	May 26, 2015

Abstract

An automated process uses a local positioning system to acquire location (i.e., position and orientation) data for one or more movable target objects. In cases where the target objects have the capability to move under computer control, this automated process can use the measured location data to control the position and orientation of such target objects. The system leverages the measurement and image capture capability of the local positioning system, and integrates controllable marker lights, image processing, and coordinate transformation computation to provide tracking information for vehicle location control. The resulting system enables position and orientation tracking of objects in a reference coordinate system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for determining a current location of a target object in a reference coordinate system when the target object is equipped with at least three active target markers arranged in a known pattern, comprising:
(a) defining a location of a camera with respect to the reference coordinate system;
(b) capturing an image while the camera is centered on the target object and the active target markers are not on;
(c) capturing one or more images while…

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Troy James J
• Lea Scott W
• Wright Daniel James
• Georgeson Gary E
• Nelson Karl Edward

Classifications

• G01S17/88 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04N23/64

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N23/69

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06K9/3241 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K2009/3225

  Physics · mapped topic