Extracting Range Data From Images Using Focus Error
Abstract
Air-to-air refueling (AAR) has become a staple when performing long missions with aircraft. With modern technology, however, people have began to research how to perform this task autonomously. Automated air-to-air refueling (A3R) is the exact concept. Combining many different systems, the idea is to allow computers on the aircraft to link up via the refueling boom, refuel, and detach before resuming pilot control. This document lays out one of the systems that is needed to perform A3R, namely, the system that extracts range data. While there are stereo cameras that perform such tasks, there are difficulties that play a role due to stereo cameras needing distance between themselves. This research uses focus error to extract the range from an image and can eliminate some potential errors that surface when using stereo cameras. This document will discuss how far A3R has come, the benefits of a focus error method, a stimulation of how this process can function, to include a processing algorithm, as well as a laboratory section, which also describes all results and improvements that can be made in the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 26, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1102958
Entities
People
- Erik M. Madden