Aspects of the disclosure provide fuel receptacle position estimation for aerial refueling (derived from aircraft position estimation). A video stream (200) comprising a plurality of video frames (200a-200d) each showing an aircraft (110) to be refueled, is received from a single camera (108). An initial position estimate (502) is determined for the aircraft (110) for the plurality of video frames (200a-200d), generating an estimated flight history (418) for the aircraft (110). The estimated flight history (418) for the aircraft (110) is used to determine a temporally consistent refined position estimate (504), based on known aircraft flight path trajectories in an aerial refueling setting. The position of a fuel receptacle (116) on the aircraft (110) is determined, based on the refined position estimate (504) for the aircraft (110), and an aerial refueling boom (104) may be controlled to engage the fuel receptacle (116). Examples may use a deep learning neural network (NN) or optimization (e.g., bundle adjustment) to determine the refined position estimate (504) from the estimated flight history (418).
Temporally consistent position estimation refinement for aerial refueling
2023-07-20
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | G06T Bilddatenverarbeitung oder Bilddatenerzeugung allgemein , IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL / B64D Ausrüstung für Flugzeuge , EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT / G01C Messen von Entfernungen, Höhen, Neigungen oder Richtungen , MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS / G05D SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES , Systeme zum Steuern oder Regeln nichtelektrischer veränderlicher Größen / G06N COMPUTER SYSTEMS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS , Rechnersysteme, basierend auf spezifischen Rechenmodellen / G06V / H04N PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION , Bildübertragung, z.B. Fernsehen |
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