DISTRIBUTED ITERATIVE MULTIMODAL SENSOR FUSION METHOD FOR IMPROVED COLLABORATIVE LOCALIZATION AND NAVIGATION

摘要

A computer implemented method for fusing position and range measurements to determine the position of at least one node of a plurality of distributed nodes is disclosed. The method includes (a) measuring the position of at least one node; (b) computing an estimate of the position of the at least one node based on the measured position using a filter that takes account of past estimates of position; (c) receiving an estimate of position of at least a second node; (d) measuring inter-node range to the at least a second node; (e) combining the measured inter-node range with the estimate of position of at least a second node using a second filter that takes account of past estimates of position to generate a refined estimate of the position of the at least one node; and (f) when a change in the position of the at least one node is above a predetermined threshold value, setting the refined estimate of the position of the at least one node to the estimate of the position of the at least one node and repeating (c), (e), and (f).