A method for controlling an apparatus, includes steps of: determining distance measurements of an object in a first direction, using distance sensors defining between them a second direction different from the first direction, assessing a first inclination of the object in relation to a second direction based on the distance measurements, and determining a first command of the apparatus according to the inclination assessment.

A self-driving semi-truck can include tractor comprising a drive system, a first set of sensors mounted to the tractor, a fifth wheel, and cargo trailer comprising a kingpin coupled to the fifth wheel. The cargo trailer can include a Mansfield bar having a second set of sensors mounted thereto, where the second set of sensors have a rearward field of view from the trailer. The semi-truck can include an autonomous control system that receives sensor data from the first set of sensors and the second set of sensors, and analyzes the live sensor view to autonomously operate the drive system along a current route.

Provided is an aircraft 10 which has been configured for conducting airborne gravimetry surveys, comprising a gravimeter 14, a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver 18 arranged in signal communication with the gravimeter 14, as well as a Doppler lidar system 20 arranged in signal communication with the gravimeter 14. The lidar system 20 is configured to determine a vertical velocity of the aircraft 10 at a predetermined time, with a time signal from the GNSS receiver 18 used to operatively synchronise both the gravimeter 14 and lidar system 20 measurements. In this manner, a gravitational acceleration measurement of the gravimeter 14 is differentially isolable from a kinematic acceleration derivable from the synchronous lidar measurement.

An apparatus for determining at least one spatial position and orientation of at least one object with at least three retroreflectors is provided. The apparatus has at least one LIDAR unit with at least three measurement channels. The LIDAR unit has at least one illumination device, which is configured to produce at least one frequency modulated input light beam. The LIDAR unit has at least one first beam splitter, wherein the first beam splitter is configured to divide the input light beam among the measurement channels in parallel and/or in sequence. The measurement channels are each configured to produce at least one measurement signal. The LIDAR unit is configured to produce at least one LIDAR signal for the measurement signals. The apparatus has at least one evaluation unit, which is configured to determine the spatial position and orientation of the object from the LIDAR signal.

A vision laser receiver having a sensing surface with a fixed geometry such that laser light received by the sensing surface will illuminate a particular section of the sensing surface and the precise elevation and/or tilt of the laser receiver will be determined from the illumination of the sensing surface.

An injection molding machine according to the present invention includes a base mounted on a mounting surface with a support interposed therebetween with a distance D1 and a distance D2 to the mounting surface, a plurality of measurement units attached to the base so as to measure distances respectively to the mounting surface, and a horizontal degree calculation unit for calculating a horizontal degree of the base on a basis of the distances measured by the plurality of measurement units.

A system and method for determining vehicle position uses light based communication (LBC) signals and a time-of-flight (TOF) pulse. Each vehicle includes a LBC system having light emitting diodes (LEDs) and receiver photodiodes capable of sending and receiving pulsed light binary messages. The LBC system may also include a TOF transceiver for sending and receiving TOF pulses, or the transmitter and receiver diodes may be used to send and receive TOF pulses. Each LBC system has a controller coupled to the transmitter diodes and receiver diodes (and the TOF transceiver when present). The controller includes a processor configured to determine the distance between vehicles. Optical characteristics are used to discern relative angle, a header is used to determine relative orientation, and the time-of-flight is used to determine distance, which together may be used by the processor to determine the relative location between transmitting vehicle and the receiving vehicle.

A system and a method for determining a position and an orientation of an object relative to a defined reference frame is disclosed. A plurality of targets are disposed at known locations relative to the defined reference frame. A head assembly is disposed on the object, where the head assembly includes a plurality of cameras. The head assembly determines the position and the orientation of the object from location data associated with the plurality of targets and image data from the plurality of cameras.

A system and method for determining a position and orientation (e.g., pose) of a rigid body is disclosed. The rigid body may be a position enabled projector, a surveying rod, a power tool, a drill robot, etc., in a given space. The position of the rigid body is specified by a set of three coordinates and the orientation is specified by a set of three angles. As such, based on these six values, the position and orientation of the rigid body can be determined.

The invention regards a navigation system and a method for error correction. The navigation system comprises a base navigation system and a correction system. Measurement uncertainties are assigned to each measurement and an error threshold is computed on the basis of these uncertainties. Redundant measurements are determined and residuals for at least a pair of redundant measurements as a discrepancy measure are calculated. In case that the residual exceeds a respective threshold an error count for each measurement involved in the determination of the residual is increased. All residuals for each measurement are summed up for a particular measurement and for carrying out the correction in a fusion filter measurements are selected on the basis of their respective error count and summed up residuals.