Estimating position and orientation of an underwater vehicle based on correlated sensor data

摘要

A method and system are described that can be used for combining two sources of position and orientation (pose) information where the information from one source is correlated with the information from the other and the sources produce information at differing rates. For example, the method and system allow for estimating position and orientation (pose) of an underwater vehicle relative to underwater structures by combining pose information computed from a 3D imaging sonar with pose information from a vehicle navigation system. To combine the information from the two sources, a determination is made as to whether to generate a forward prediction of the pose estimate of one of the sources relative to the other, and generating the forward prediction if needed. An updated pose of the underwater vehicle is determined based on the fused pose estimate, and which is used for vehicle guidance and control.

主权项

1. A method of estimating position and orientation of an underwater vehicle comprising:
receiving, by a processor, pose data from one source, the one source being a vehicle navigation system; receiving, by a processor, pose data from another source being an image sensor-base source different from the vehicle navigation system; determining a fused pose estimate using a processor, the determining comprising determining a forward prediction of the pose data received from the image sensor-based source based on a forward propagation of the pose data from the image sensor-based source relative to the pose data from the vehicle navigation system and combining, using a processor, the pose data from the vehicle navigation system and the forward prediction of the pose data from the image sensor-based source, the combination resulting in the fused pose estimate; and estimating, using a processor, an updated pose of the underwater vehicle based on the fused pose estimate.