Optical hover control
http://www.centeye.com/
Guys, check out this site, they are doing some very interesting things. They have a chip that mimics the vision of insects using optical flow. This is mounted in a free flight model plane and keeps it from flying into obstacles. Here is the thought I have though. If this were mounted on the underside of a helicopter and pointed straight down, could it be adapted to provide a stable hover regardless of altitude? What I am thinking is it would be similar to the old range-finder style camera, where you slide two images until they match up and that puts the lens in focus. If you are looking down vertically there will be straight edges on streets, sidewalks, buildings, and such. Once activated this system would 'memorize' these lines and angles and then use the optical flow analysis to maintain the position until you took it back offline. If you watch some of the videos and read the description of optical flow analysis you should get an idea of what I am thinking of. Regardless, some of the videos are a hoot and the description of optical flow is fascinating.
Guys, check out this site, they are doing some very interesting things. They have a chip that mimics the vision of insects using optical flow. This is mounted in a free flight model plane and keeps it from flying into obstacles. Here is the thought I have though. If this were mounted on the underside of a helicopter and pointed straight down, could it be adapted to provide a stable hover regardless of altitude? What I am thinking is it would be similar to the old range-finder style camera, where you slide two images until they match up and that puts the lens in focus. If you are looking down vertically there will be straight edges on streets, sidewalks, buildings, and such. Once activated this system would 'memorize' these lines and angles and then use the optical flow analysis to maintain the position until you took it back offline. If you watch some of the videos and read the description of optical flow analysis you should get an idea of what I am thinking of. Regardless, some of the videos are a hoot and the description of optical flow is fascinating.
Replies to This Discussion
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
Very cool. We've seen optical flow used before, especially in blimps, but it's interesting to hear that the sensors, optical processors and code might be available as a product. The slightly cobwebby nature of that site and the "Coming in 2007!" promises are a little worrying, however ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Frank Cates on
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The site seemed a bit geeky to me too, but the information was good. The video of the plane dodging back and forth and missing all the tree branches was good, I kept imagining a tiny little brain going "DOH!!!" until it finally got back out in the open.
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Howard Gordon on -
The Avago ADNS-2610 optical flow sensor has been used in a variety of airborne optical flow projects - here are some technical papers with details -
www.ee.byu.edu/faculty/beard/papers/preprints/GriffithsSCMB05.pdf
contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1167.pdf
and a very cool video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB80l5UwR3U
The sensors themselves cost about $1. I bought a batch of these from Digikey, and hope to start working with them in the next 1-2 months ...
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