Patent Document ID: 9607377
Application ID: 14837554
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for tracking a moving target having up to six degrees of freedom and rapidly determining positions of the moving target, said system comprising: a precision optical target configured to be fixed to the moving target; at least two cameras positioned so as to view the precision optical target from different directions with each of the at least two cameras being configured to record two dimensional images of the precision optical target defining a precise target point; one or more computer readable storage devices configured to store a plurality of computer executable instructions; and one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more computer readable storage devices and configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions in order to cause the system to determine a position of the moving target in six degrees of freedom, wherein the determining the position of the moving target in six degrees of freedom comprises: identifying the precise target point on the precision optical target and x, y and z displacement of the precise target point based on optical images collected by the at least two cameras; utilizing an iteration procedure whereby an approximate first-order solution is proposed and tested against the identified precise target point to determine residual errors which are then divided by the local derivatives with respect to each component of rotation and translation, to determine an iterative correction; repeating the iteration procedure until residual error becomes smaller than a predetermined level of accuracy; and utilizing the repeated iteration procedure to determine the position of the moving target at rates of at least 100 times per second.