Optical Flow-Based State Estimation for Guided Projectiles

Abstract

Optical flow-based state estimation could significantly enhance the scope and performance of future guided projectiles by mitigating reliance on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and augmenting traditional inertial measurement units and other navigational sensors. The goal of this work is to specialize and apply the theory of optical flow geometry to projectile vision-based navigation. This report describes the construction of an optical flow (OF) simulation tool for projectile flight and presents the equations and constraints relating OF to projectile motion. Specifically, the differential epipolar constraint is used to recover the body-fixed translational velocity vector (up to scale) and angular rates from the projected flow field. Finally, an example simulation is presented wherein we generate vehicle state and OF "ground truth" histories, corresponding synthetic video sequence, measured OF, and state estimation history.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2015
Accession Number
ADA619829

Entities

People

  • Moshe Hamaoui

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Equations
  • Flow Fields
  • Focal Planes
  • Geometry
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Guidance
  • Guided Projectiles
  • Inertial Measurement Units
  • Mathematics
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Projectiles
  • Sequences
  • Simulations
  • Three Dimensional
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers