Systems and methods for using a sliding window of global positioning epochs in visual-inertial odometry

US10267924B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• QUALCOMM Incorporated · US

Inventors

• Arvind Ramanandan · San Diego, US
• Murali Ramaswamy Chari · San Diego, US
• Yiming Chen · Rancho Santa Margarita, US
• Avdhut JOSHI · Ann Arbor, US
• John Steven Lima · West Terre Haute, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 13, 2017
• Grant date: Apr 23, 2019
• Expiry date: Sep 13, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01S11/12
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method for visual inertial odometry (VIO)-aided global positioning is described. The method includes updating an extended Kalman filter (EKF) state including a current pose and a sliding window of multiple prior poses. The sliding window includes poses at a number of most recent global positioning system (GPS) time epochs. Updating the EKF includes updating an EKF covariance matrix for the prior poses and the current pose in the EKF state. The method also includes determining, at a GPS epoch, a relative displacement between each of the updated prior poses and the current pose. The method further includes determining an error covariance of each of the relative displacements based on cross-covariances between each of the updated prior poses and the current pose in the EKF covariance matrix. The method additionally includes using the relative displacements and the error covariances to fuse pseudorange measurements taken over multiple epochs.