ROBOTS AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES NEED AN IMAGING SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES RANGE TO EACH PIXEL FOR OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE AND PATH FOLLOWING.

ROBOTS AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES NEED AN IMAGING SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES RANGE TO EACH PIXEL FOR OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE AND PATH FOLLOWING. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM EVALUATES A NEW CONCEPT FOR MEETING THESE NEEDS. THE SYSTEM WOULD HAVE NO MOVING PARTS, BE SIMPLE, AND BE RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE. AN ANALYSIS WILL DETERMINE THE SYSTEM PARAMETERS IN TERMS OF SIGNAL POWER AND SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO. IN PHASE I A LIMITED FIELD-OF-VIEW MODEL WILL BE USED TO MEASURE RANGE, RANGE RESOLUTION, AND IMAGE RESOLUTION AS FUNCTIONS OF TRANSMITTED POWER, MODULATION FREQUENCY, AND FRAME RATE. IN ADDITION, A PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF THE OVERALL SYSTEM WILL BE PERFORMED TO DETERMINE COST EFFECTIVENESS. THE RESULTS OF PHASE I OF THE RESEARCH SHOULD PROVIDE THE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS FOR A FULL SYSTEM TO BE BREADBOARDED AND FULLY TESTED IN PHASE II. THIS RESEARCH WILL RESULT IN A PROTOTYPE OF A SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE IMAGING SYSTEM WITH RANGE INFORMATION. THE PRIMARY APPLICATION PROBABLY WOULD BE TO AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND ROBOTS, BUT THE SYSTEM COULD ALSO BE INCORPORATED INTO AN AUXILLIARY OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE SYSTEM FOR NIGHT USE OF MANNED VEHICLES. IN ADDITION, A VARIATION OF THE SYSTEM MAY PROVE USEFUL AS AN AID FOR THE BLIND.