AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC SYSTEMS REQUIRE INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR SURROUNDINGS IN ORDER TO NAV…

Public award description

AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC SYSTEMS REQUIRE INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR SURROUNDINGS IN ORDER TO NAVIGATE PROPERLY. A VIDEO CAMERA MACHINE VISION SYSTEM CAN SUPPLY POSITION INFORMATION OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS, BUT NO RANGE INFORMATION. IDEALLY, A SYSTEM THAT, IN ONE PACKAGE, PROVIDES 3-DIMENSIONAL RELATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT EXTERNAL OBJECTS IS NEEDED. EXISTING LASER RANGE FINDING SYSTEMS ARE EXPENSIVE AND CONSUME LARGE AMOUNTS OF POWER. ADDITIONALLY, THEY ARE SENSITIVE TO ONLY A NARROW SOLID ANGLE, AND MUST BE SCANNED MECHANICALLY IN ORDER TO PROVIDE MORE THAN A SINGLE DIMENSION OF DEPTH INFORMATION. NANOHMICS PROPOSES TO DESIGN AN ELECTRO-OPTICAL IMAGING DEVICE CAPABLE OF AUTONOMOUSLY DETERMINING THE RANGE TO OBJECTS IN A SCENE WITHOUT THE USE OF ACTIVE EMITTERS OR MULTIPLE APERTURES. THE NOVEL, AUTOMATED, LOW-POWER IMAGING SYSTEM IS BASED ON A PLENOPTIC CAMERA DESIGN, AND WILL BE SIMPLE TO IMPLEMENT, PROVIDING THE RANGE TO SELECTED OBJECTS IN THE FIELD OF VIEW. NANOHMICS WILL WORK TOWARDS PRESENTING A 3D MAP OF THE FIELD-OF-VIEW PLUS RANGE TO BE USED AT A LATER TIME TO INTERFACE WITH THE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE FOR NAVIGATION AND OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE. THE SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED SO THAT IT IS INEXPENSIVE, EASY TO INTEGRATE WITH EXISTING/PLANNED PLANETARY ROVERS, RUGGED, AND LOW IN MAINTENANCE. NANOHMICS WILL DEVELOP A CUSTOM OPTICAL SYSTEM ALONG WITH EMBEDDED DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING ELECTRONICS AND A UNIQUE OPTO-MECHANICAL DESIGN; AND DEVELOP FIRMWARE/SOFTWARE ALGORITHMS FOR DETERMINING RANGE TO OBJECTS WITHIN THE SYSTEM FIELD-OF-VIEW. OPTIONALLY THE PROCESSED IMAGE WILL BE COUPLED WITH AUTOMATIC DETECTION, RECOGNITION, AND AVOIDANCE ALGORITHMS.