Abstract: A method of taking a measurement using a sensor mounted on an aerial vehicle, the aerial vehicle having one or more propellers and one or more motors which are selectively operable to drive the one or more propellers to rotate to cause the vehicle to fly, and a sensor mounted on the aerial vehicle, the method comprising the steps of, operating the one or more motors to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly; at a first time instant, slowing down or turning off said one or more motors; while the one or more motors are slowed down or turned off, taking a measurement using said sensor; at a second time instant, which is after the measurement has been taken using the sensor, operating the one or more motors again to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly. There is further provided a corresponding aerial vehicle.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining a state xk of a localizing apparatus at a time t. the state xk being a realization of a state random variable xk. The position and orientation of a camera, e.g., mounted on a drone as an example of a localizing apparatus, may be used for determining a state of the localizing apparatus, and the state may be tracked over time. Existing methods for determining the state of a localizing apparatus do not provide an adequate level of accuracy, however, thus making them insufficient for use in many applications. It is an object of the present invention to mitigate at least some of the disadvantages associated with the methods for determining a state xk of a localizing apparatus known from the state of the art.

Abstract: A method for calibrating a detection range of one or more sensors that are within a predefined coordinate system.

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provided a method of taking a measurement using a sensor mounted on an aerial vehicle, the aerial vehicle having one or more propellers and one or more motors which are selectively operable to drive the one or more propellers to rotate to cause the vehicle to fly, and a sensor mounted on the aerial vehicle, the method comprising the steps of, operating the one or more motors to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly; at a first time instant, slowing down or turning off said one or more motors; while the one or more motors are slowed down or turned off, taking a measurement using said sensor; at a second time instant, which is after the measurement has been taken using the sensor, operating the one or more motors again to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly. There is further provided a corresponding aerial vehicle.

Abstract: A method for calibrating a camera which is in a position and orientation within a predefined coordinate system.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining a state xk (8) of a camera (11) at a time tk, the state xk (8) being a realization of a state random variable Xk, wherein the state is related to a state-space model of a movement of the camera (11).

Abstract: The invention relates to a for controlling a light source, the method using (a) at least one pose estimate of a camera configured to capture one or more images of a scene of interest which comprises at least one landmark, as said light source is operated to emit light which illuminates said scene of interest, (b) a landmark map comprising at least 3D location information of a plurality of landmarks comprising the at least one landmark in the scene of interest, (c) an illumination model describing a relationship between an emission illumination power and a reflection illumination power, wherein said emission illumination power is the power of light emitted by the light source to illuminate said scene of interest, and said reflection illumination power is the illumination power of light reflected by one or more landmarks in said scene of interest and received by the camera, wherein the method comprises the following steps: (1) determining, for at least one of the plurality of landmarks, at least one emission

Abstract: A flying machine storage container is provided that comprises multiple charging stations and a clamping mechanism. The clamping mechanism is configured to secure flying machines in the charging stations and securely close charging circuits between the storage container and the flying machines. A system for launching flying machines is also provided. The system comprises two regions and a transition region between the two regions. The two regions each constrain the positioning of a flying machine and the transition region enables a flying machine to move from the first region to the second region to reach an exit. A flying machine having sufficient performance capabilities will be able to successfully launch. Centralized and decentralized communication architectures are also provided for communicating data between a central control system, multiple storage containers, and multiple stored flying machines stored at each of the storage containers.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining obstacle-free paths of an areal vehicle in a warehouse and for determining shortcuts to be generated in the warehouse to increase the number of obstacle-free paths available to the areal vehicle. The systems and methods include predicting at least one location of an inventory moving device in the warehouse based on the status of received inventory moving tasks, and determining an obstacle-free path of an aerial vehicle to a desired location in the warehouse based on the predicted at least one location of the inventory moving device. The systems and methods also include receiving inventory validation tasks in a warehouse comprising a plurality of storage racks, requesting, based on the received inventory validation tasks, a shortcut to be generated in a storage rack of the plurality of storage racks to provide a path segment for performing the inventory validation task.

Abstract: A self-localizing apparatus uses timestampable signals transmitted by transceivers that are a part of a distributed localization system to compute its position relative to the transceivers. Transceivers and self-localizing apparatuses are arranged for highly accurate timestamping using digital and analog reception and transmission electronics as well as one or more highly accurate clocks, compensation units, localization units, position calibration units, scheduling units, or synchronization units. Transceivers and self-localizing apparatuses are further arranged to allow full scalability in the number of self-localizing apparatuses and to allow robust self-localization with latencies and update rates useful for high performance applications such as autonomous mobile robot control.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for controlling a light source (7), the method using (a) at least one pose estimate (1) of a camera (8) configured to capture one or more images of a scene of interest (13) which comprises at least one landmark (9), as said light source is operated to emit light which illuminates said scene of interest, (b) a landmark map (2) comprising at least 3D location information of a plurality of landmarks comprising the at least one landmark in the scene of interest, (c) an illumination model (3) describing a relationship between an emission illumination power and reflection illumination power, wherein said emission illumination power is the power of light emitted by the light source (7) to illuminate said scene of interest, and said reflection illumination power is the illumination power of light reflected by one or more landmarks in said scene of interest and received by the camera, and (d) a predefined threshold reflection illumination power (4).

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provide a method a method for matching features in an image with landmark representations in a landmark map, the method having: providing at least one image; extracting from the image one or more features; providing a landmark map comprising a list of landmark representations, wherein each landmark representation is a representation of a respective physical landmark; creating a plurality of policies, each policy having at least one matching decision of the feature and the landmark representation, each matching decision having a stage cost; assigning a policy cost to each of the policies, wherein the policy cost is a function of the stage costs of the matching decisions the policy includes; selecting from the collection of the policies the policy with the desired policy cost. There is further provided an assembly having a processor which is configured to carry out said method.

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provide a method a method for matching features in an image with landmark representations in a landmark map, the method comprising: providing at least one image; extracting from the image one or more features; providing a landmark map comprising a list of landmark representations, wherein each landmark representation is a representation of a respective physical landmark; creating a plurality of policies, each policy comprising at least one matching decision of the feature and the landmark representation, each matching decision having a stage cost; assigning a policy cost to each of the policies, wherein the policy cost is a function of the stage costs of the matching decisions the policy is comprised of; selecting from the collection of the policies the policy with the desired policy cost. There is further provided an assembly having a processor which is configured to carry out said method.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining whether an image or location contains a barcode. The systems and methods include comparing visual data extracted from an image to target visual data. The systems and methods also include comparing different portions of captured barcode data to corresponding portions of target barcode data. The systems and methods also include utilizing barcode formatting data when comparing or computing a similarity measure. The systems and methods also include causing a second image to be captured when no match is found in a first image. The systems and methods also include identifying a target barcode from a barcode database based on spatial information about where an image was captured. The systems and methods also include validating a barcode based on different regions of the barcode from two different images of the barcode. The systems and methods also include using two barcodes captured in an image.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and device for estimating angle information (50) of a received ultra-wideband wireless signal. Upon reception of a wireless signal emitted from a transmitting device (20) with known sounding sequence, the receiving device (10) estimates the channel impulse response (CIR), selects a portion of the channel impulse response (CIR), and estimates angle information (50) given the angle-dependent antenna transfer functions of either the transmitting device (20), the receiving device (10), or both. For this, the selected portion of the channel impulse response of the signal is fed into a neural network (73) which outputs an angle information probability distribution for the ultra-wideband wireless signal (50).

Abstract: Localization systems and methods for transmitting timestampable localization signals from anchors according to one or more transmission schedules. The transmission schedules may be generated and updated to achieve desired positioning performance. For example, one or more anchors may transmit localization signals at a different rate than other anchors, the anchor transmission order can be changed, and the signals can partially overlap. In addition, different transmission parameters may be used to transmit two localization signals at the same time without interference. A self-localizing apparatus is able to receive the localization signals and determine its position. The self-localizing apparatus may have a configurable receiver that can select to receive one of multiple available localization signals. The self-localizing apparatuses may have a pair of receivers able to receive two localization signals at the same time.

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provide a method of creating a landmark map comprising the steps of: capturing a plurality of frame using a camera, each frame comprising an image; assigning an image number which denotes the order in which each frame was taken; extracting features from all the images in the captured frames; assigning a distinct identifier to each respective feature which was extracted from the image belonging to the frame which was first captured; for each image belonging to the respective frames which was captured after the first frame was captured, carrying out the following steps: (i) computing a distance between, the location of each respective extracted feature in that image, and the location of each respective feature extracted from image belonging to a previously captured frame; and (ii) determining if said computed distance is less than, a predefined threshold distance; and if the computed distance is not less than said predefined threshold distance then assign that extract

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for processing time of flight (ToF) data generated by a ToF camera. Such systems and methods may comprise receiving the ToF data comprising fine depth data and coarse depth data of an environment, processing the received coarse depth data in real time to generate one of a coarse three-dimensional (3D) representation or an intensity image of the environment, storing the received fine depth data and the coarse depth data, and processing the stored fine depth data and the coarse depth data, at a later time, to generate a fine 3D representation of the environment.

Abstract: A flying machine storage container is provided that comprises multiple charging stations and a clamping mechanism. The clamping mechanism is configured to secure flying machines in the charging stations and securely close charging circuits between the storage container and the flying machines. A system for launching flying machines is also provided. The system comprises two regions and a transition region between the two regions. The two regions each constrain the positioning of a flying machine and the transition region enables a flying machine to move from the first region to the second region to reach an exit. A flying machine having sufficient performance capabilities will be able to successfully launch. Centralized and decentralized communication architectures are also provided for communicating data between a central control system, multiple storage containers, and multiple stored flying machines stored at each of the storage containers.

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provided a method of taking a measurement using a sensor mounted on an aerial vehicle, the aerial vehicle having one or more propellers and one or more motors which are selectively operable to drive the one or more propellers to rotate to cause the vehicle to fly, and a sensor mounted on the aerial vehicle, the method comprising the steps of, operating the one or more motors to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly; at a first time instant, slowing down or turning off said one or more motors; while the one or more motors are slowed down or turned off, taking a measurement using said sensor; at a second time instant, which is after the measurement has been taken using the sensor, operating the one or more motors again to drive the one or more propellers to cause the vehicle to fly. There is further provided a corresponding aerial vehicle.