Design and Development Of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensor System For 6-Degrees Of Freedom Estimation

Abstract

Six Degrees Of Freedom (6-DOF) is required for determining the location and at- titude of a target object with respect to an observer. Electro- Optical sensors are one of the sensor types used for this purpose. In such systems, a camera is used for capturing images of a defined pattern on target object. Using the image of the target pattern, six degrees of freedom of the target are computed.

In the present project it is planned to design and develop an Electro-Optical imaging sensor system (laboratory model), which captures the target images and estimates 6 DOF. The scope of work involves identification of appropriate sensor, development of algorithm for 6-DOF estimation and implementation on embedded hardware for real time operations. The major system parameters include sensor FOV, format, bit depth, sensor data interface protocols, image data processing etc. Based on the esti- mated 6-DOFs, the system will be able to generate control signals to drive and align the observer system towards target object. This system will have potential use in applications like robotics, machine vision, satellite docking etc.