Patent ID: 11940277
Assignee: REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 15:
16. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause a processor of a vision-aided inertial navigation system (VINS) to:
receive image data along a trajectory of the VINS within an environment, wherein the image data contains a plurality of features observed within the environment;
receive inertial measurement unit (IMU) data indicative of motion of the VINS;
receive odometry data, the odometry data indicative of scale information and comprising wheel encoder data for at least two wheels of the VINS; and
compute, based on the image data, the IMU data, and the odometry data, state estimates for a position and orientation for a plurality of poses of the VINS along the trajectory,
wherein computing the state estimates comprises:
maintaining a state vector for the VINS based upon the image data and IMU data, where the state vector comprises state estimates for each of the plurality of poses of the VINS along the trajectory, where each state estimate comprises a position and orientation of the VINS;
estimating an error in the state vector based upon a recent state estimate, the image data, and the IMU data; and
updating the state estimates based on the odometry data and at least one feature observed from at least one of the plurality of poses of the VINS along the trajectory by:
generating a geometric constraint on at least one of a position or an orientation of the VINS based upon the odometry data, wherein generating the geometric constraint comprises:
computing a motion manifold for the environment, and
using the motion manifold as a cost term to a stochastic cost function to generate a planar-motion constraint; and

limiting the updated state estimates according to constraints including the geometric constraint generated based upon the odometry data.