Robust guidance of a conventionally steered vehicle using destination bearing

An algorithm for camera-based navigation of a conventionally steered vehicle is presented. The destination bearing, obtained by actively panning the camera to fixate on the destination, is the primary measurement. A steering sequence designed to direct a moving vehicle towards a visible destination is generated using an extension of predictive control techniques. A variable sampling interval, based on distance traveled instead of elapsed time, provides robustness to destination range errors. Additional robustness is achieved by incorporating nonlinearities into the steering algorithm, ensuring that the moving vehicle originating from an awkward position and heading will not diverge from the destination. A two-stage extended Kalman filter, which uses the destination bearing angle and known vehicle motion, provides estimates of range. A criterion for shifting the attention of the camera between intermediate destinations is presented. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed steering algorithm. >