Accession Number:

AD1135204

Title:

Accurate Covariance Estimation for Pose Data from Iterative Closest Point Algorithm

Descriptive Note:

[Technical Report, Master's Thesis]

Corporate Author:

AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OH

Personal Author(s):

• Yuan, Rick H

Report Date:

2021-03-25

Pagination or Media Count:

66

Abstract:

One of the fundamental problems of robotics and navigation is the estimation of relative pose of an external object with respect to the observer. A common method for computing the relative pose is the Iterative Closest Point ICP algorithm, where a reference point cloud of a known object is registered against a sensed point cloud to determine relative pose. To use this computed pose information in down-stream processing algorithms, it is necessary to estimate the uncertainty of the ICP output, typically represented as a covariance matrix. In this thesis a novel method for estimating uncertainty from sensed data is introduced. This method was exercised in a virtual simulation of an automated aerial refueling AAR task. While prior work assumed the sensor itself had been carefully characterized a-priori, the introduced method learns the sensor uncertainty from live data, making the proposed approach more computationally efficient and robust to sensor degradation than prior techniques.

Descriptors:

Subject Categories:

• Information Science
• Navigation and Guidance
• Numerical Mathematics

Distribution Statement:

[A, Approved For Public Release]