An Aircraft Ranging Algorithm Based on Two Frames of Image in Monocular Image Sequence

Xiaoning Fu; Lixia Wang

doi:10.14429/dsj.64.2887

Xiaoning Fu School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an-710 071
Lixia Wang School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an-710 071

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.64.2887

Abstract

We proposed a novel rotation-invariant feature based passive ranging algorithm to estimate the distance of an imaged non-cooperation target to camera. This improved algorithm avoids sometimes occurrence of physically unreasonable results in solving the existing quartic equation, such as the happening of complex or negative value. This method uses three matched points in two adjacent frames of an image sequence to extract depth-dependent line features of the target. With this line features combination of the observer’s displacement and imaging directions, a quadratic equation was build to estimate the distance. Analysis shows that the proposed new passive ranging equation would be solvable when the observer is with non-zero displacement in adjacent sampling instances. Our reduced-model experiment also demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is not only simple and feasible but also with a relative ranging error no more than 4 per cent in most cases.

Defence Science Journal, Vol. 64, No. 1, January 2014, DOI:10.14429/dsj.64.2887

Author Biographies

Xiaoning Fu, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an-710 071

Dr Xiaoning Fu received his PhD in Technology Physics from Xidian University in 2005. He is currently working at School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University. He is in charge of photoelectric detection technology and system, video signal processing and electronic countermeasures in Xidian University. His research interests include imaging detection, signal processing, electro-optic ranging and countermeasure.

Lixia Wang, School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an-710 071

Lixia Wang received her bachelor degree in Automation from Anhui Polytechnic University in 2011. She is now pursuing her master’s degree in College of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University. Her research interests include photoelectric guidance system and electro-optic countermeasure.