Docking Assist Control Using Camera-Based Scene Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional automated directional control systems for vehicles, including planes and watercraft, are unreliable and inaccurate, especially in crowded conditions and with external disturbances like wind or water currents, due to the need for expensive and difficult-to-retrofit sensors.
Innovation Solution
A docking assist system that includes a logic device, sensors, and actuators to provide accurate docking assist control signals based on received parameters and sensor data, allowing for improved navigation and steering of mobile structures, including watercraft, through a combination of sensors like sonar, GPS, and cameras, integrated with a user interface for enhanced control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional automated directional control systems use expensive purpose-built sensors, then measurement precision may be improved, but device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a camera as a universal sensor that serves multiple functions: detecting dock position, measuring distance, determining orientation, and identifying navigation hazards. This single multi-functional device replaces what would traditionally require multiple specialized sensors, thereby maintaining measurement precision while reducing device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a digital copy or representation of the physical docking environment through image capture and processing. By analyzing images of the dock and surrounding area, the system reconstructs spatial relationships and navigational information without requiring direct physical measurement devices at each location
2Reliability
If conventional systems use multiple specialized sensors for accurate docking, then reliability improves, but ease of manufacture and retrofitting deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The camera-based system provides a universal sensing platform that can be integrated into various watercraft types without requiring vehicle-specific sensor installations. The same camera hardware serves multiple reliability-critical functions including position detection, distance measurement, and hazard identification, simplifying both manufacturing and retrofitting processes
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the watercraft's existing display interface to present processed navigation information and control recommendations. By leveraging already-present user interface components, the system avoids additional hardware installation while maintaining reliable docking assistance
3Measurement precision
If conventional systems operate in crowded conditions with external disturbances, then navigation control is complicated, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously captures images and processes them to provide real-time feedback about dock position, distance, and orientation. This ongoing feedback loop allows the system to compensate for environmental disturbances by constantly updating its understanding of the docking environment and adjusting control recommendations accordingly
Solution Approach 2:
The image processing algorithms serve as an intermediary that translates raw visual information into reliable navigational data. By processing images to extract geometric relationships and filter out noise from environmental disturbances, the system maintains measurement precision even in challenging conditions
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for systems and methods to provide assisted and/or autonomous navigation for mobile structures. A docking assist system includes a logic device, one or more sensors, one or more actuators/controllers, and modules to interface with users, sensors, actuators, and/or other modules of a mobile structure. The logic device is adapted to receive docking assist parameters from a user interface and perimeter sensor data from a perimeter ranging system mounted to the mobile structure. The logic device determines docking assist control signals based on the docking assist parameters and perimeter sensor data. The logic device may then provide the docking assist control signals to a navigation control system. Control signals and/or other docking assist analysis and/or parameters may be displayed to a user and/or used to adjust a steering actuator, a propulsion system thrust, and/or other operational systems of the mobile structure.