US 12,254,649 B2
Optical flow odometry based on optical mouse sensor technology
Fulvio Bresciani, Turin (IT); and Giorgio Fasano, Turin (IT)
Assigned to Thales Alenia Space Italia S.P.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT)
Appl. No. 17/629,625
Filed by Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT)
PCT Filed Jul. 24, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/057021
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 24, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/014423, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 28, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000012777 (IT), filed on Jul. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0254061 A1, Aug. 11, 2022
Int. Cl. G06T 7/73 (2017.01); B64G 1/66 (2006.01); G06T 7/60 (2017.01); G06V 10/147 (2022.01); G06V 20/10 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01)
CPC G06T 7/73 (2017.01) [B64G 1/66 (2013.01); G06T 7/60 (2013.01); G06T 7/74 (2017.01); G06V 10/147 (2022.01); G06V 20/10 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06T 2207/10016 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30244 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30252 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical flow odometer (2) to determine the position of an object (1) movable relative to a surface, comprising:
a cluster of individual digital image sensors (3) arranged on the movable object (1) in respective reference positions; and
an electronic processing and control unit (4) in communication with the digital image sensors (3) and configured to:
operate the digital image sensors (3) in successive time instants during movement of the movable object (1) so as to carry out a sequence of multiple digital image capture operations, in each of which the digital image sensors (3) are operated to simultaneously capture respective digital images; and
receive from the digital image sensors and process the digital images (3) captured in the multiple digital image capture operations to compute either the positions of the individual digital image sensors (3) or the position of the cluster of digital image sensors (3) at the successive time instant associated with the one or more of the multiple digital image capture operations; and
compute the position of the movable object (1) at the successive time instant associated with the one or more multiple digital image capture operations based on either the positions of one or more individual digital image sensors (3) or the position of the cluster of digital image sensors (3) computed at the successive time instant associated with the one or more multiple digital image capture operations wherein the digital image sensors (3) are arranged on the movable object (1) in reference positions according to a reference geometric configuration; and
wherein the electronic processing and control unit (4) is further configured to:
store data representative of the reference geometrical configuration of the digital image sensors (3); and
compute the position of the movable object (1) at the successive time instant associated with the one or more of the multiple digital image capture operations by:
comparing a computed geometrical configuration formed by the positions of the individual digital image sensors (3) computed at the successive time instant associated with the one or more of the multiple digital image capture operations with the stored reference geometrical configuration, so as to identify those computed positions of the individual digital image sensors (3) that are offset to, and those that match with, the respective reference positions in the reference geometrical configuration; and
computing the position of the movable object (1) based on one or more computed positions of the digital image sensors (3) that match with the respective reference positions in the reference geometrical configuration.