COORDINATED USE OF VISUAL ODOMETRY AND LANDMARKS FOR NAVIGATION OF MOBILE GROUND VEHICLES

Abstract. The paper considers two directions in the use of visual data for information support of purposeful movements of ground vehicles. This is optical odometry and navigation by landmarks in the environment. Optical odometry builds the trajectory of movement of the vehicle based on the determination of displacements based on selective visual data from different fields of view. The choice and indication of landmarks at the described stage of research remains with the operator. The vision system (VS) monitors the specified landmarks and determines the position of the vehicle relative to them. The experiments used such fields of view as monocular forward looking, panoramic (fisheye type) and forward looking stereo system. When combining the data of the visual channel with each other and with the data of other navigation systems, the specificity of visual sensors is taken into account – a significant effect of the reliability and accuracy of the results from the observation conditions. Experimental verification of the VS layout showed the achievability of high accuracy in solving the navigation problem using the visual channel. All the components of the described process of organizing purposeful movements based on the use of the visual channel continue to be improved.