Vision Based Blade Positioning



Precise knowledge of the pose or position of the implement with respect to the body of a piece of construction equipment is fundamental to the ability to perform precision grading and excavation tasks. This information is typically gathered using a collection of sensors and associated cabling mounted on the implement and/or across the joints of the articulation.
This concept originated when I realized that the geometry of host equipment could be used to provide the additional constraints required to construct a bijective projection of locations on the implement using images from a single camera mounted to the body of the equipment. The use of a single camera rather than a stereo camera would greatly reduce the cost and complexity of a vision-based blade positioning implementation.
Primary inventor, method patent application assigned to Topcon Positioning Systems.


© 2019 Donna Kelley