Patent ID: 7242791
Filing Date: 2007-07-10
Classification: G05D

Abstract:
1. A method for guiding a vehicle, the method comprising: establishing a maximum allowable correction duration for correction of a location error in a position of a vehicle; establishing a maximum allowable vision-derived displacement for correction of vision error in the position of the vehicle; collecting location data for the vehicle based on a location-determining receiver associated with the vehicle; collecting vision data for the vehicle based on a vision module associated with the vehicle; estimating location quality data for the location data during an evaluation time window; estimating vision quality data for the vision data during the evaluation time window, the vision quality data being degraded by a quality degradation indicator where a reference feature or reference marker in an image is not referenced for a threshold maximum time; and selecting a guidance mode of the vehicle based on the quality data and consistent with at least one of the maximum allowable correction duration and the maximum allowable vision displacement.