Vehicle localization in open-pit mining using GPS and monocular camera

摘要

Described herein is a method and system for vehicle localization in an open pit mining environment having intermittent or incomplete GPS coverage. The system comprises GPS receivers associated with the vehicles and providing GPS measurements when available, as well as one or more cameras 50,55 overlooking the mine region 10. The cameras 50,55 are at a known location and are used for generating a sequence of images in a field of view with predetermined calibration in a fixed coordinate system. The system further comprises a vehicle recognition processor 120 for analyzing individual images from the camera to identify and locate within an image a vehicle in the mine region, as well as a vehicle tracking processor 130 for analyzing a sequence of images from the camera to track the identified vehicle location in the sequence of images. A data fusion processor 160 is coupled to receive GPS measurements, when available, from the vehicle GPS receivers, to fuse the received GPS measurement and corresponding vehicle image location, and to output a vehicle localization output 125.

主权项

1. A method for vehicle localization in an open pit mining environment, comprising:
receiving a sequence of picture frames from a camera calibrated in a fixed coordinate system with a field of view encompassing a region of vehicle operation in the mining environment; processing pixels of at least one picture frame of the sequence of picture frames to identify interest points using a vehicle recognition algorithm; analysing the interest points to determine the presence of a vehicle in the camera field of view; tracking an image position of the vehicle within the region of vehicle operation by analysing the sequence of picture frames using a vehicle tracking algorithm; ascertaining at least one independent measure of the vehicle location within the region of vehicle operation relative to the fixed coordinate system; and fusing the image position of the vehicle and the at least one independent vehicle location measurement to provide an output of vehicle localization over time.