Patent ID: 11905675
Assignee: TOPCON POSITIONING SYSTEMS, INC.
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E  G | IPC E  G

Claim 0:
1. A vision system for determining a position of an implement attached to a machine, the vision system comprising:
an image acquisition device for taking an image of the implement, the image acquisition device positioned (i) to view at least two points of interest located distally on the implement such that the at least two points of interest are visible in the image for an entire range of motion of the implement, and (ii) such that any combination of motions of the implement sharing an origin will cause the at least two points of interest to be mapped to an image plane of the image acquisition device by an azimuthal projection;
a processor; and
a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
calculating respective locations of the at least two points of interest within spherical patches of a vision system frame of reference of the vision system by reversing a projection of the at least two points of interest in the image using respective locations of the points of interest in the image and a known geometry of an articulation of the implement about the machine.