Methods and devices for, among other applications, locating an emitter, comprises an array of receivers configured in different angular positions about the array relative to a corresponding array location axis, to receive a signal from the emitter having at least one burst containing a train of pulses, and at least one processor configured to profile pulse count values at each receiver, from one receiver to another in the array in relation to their respective angular positions, to designate a maximum peak angular position associated with a maximum pulse count value, and to attribute the peak angular position to an angular emitter location.

Methods and devices for, among other applications, locating an emitter, comprises an array of receivers configured in different angular positions about the array relative to a corresponding array location axis, to receive a signal from the emitter having at least one burst containing a train of pulses, and at least one processor configured to profile pulse count values at each receiver, from one receiver to another in the array in relation to their respective angular positions, to designate a maximum peak angular position associated with a maximum pulse count value, and to attribute the peak angular position to an angular emitter location.

The invention relates to an autonomously guided machine (10) comprising at least a steering body and a steering mechanism (13), said machine also comprising: a guide system (11) including an optical filter (17) which has a receiving surface exposed to the exterior and which can transmit light rays directed substantially in one direction and eliminate other light rays; a screen (18) that receives the filtered light; a digital camera (19) for capturing pixel resolution images of the screen (18); a pre-processing element for selecting the pixels corresponding to an incident planar laser beam received by the guide system (11), and filtered and projected onto the screen (18), and for generating a response detection image; a line generator for generating an estimate J of the coordinates of the detected lines based on the response detection image, involving the processing of the pixel columns pixels; and a locator which receives the estimate of the coordinates of the detected lines and calculates values representative of pixel columns based on said estimate and on parameters of the guide system (11), and subsequently calculates a distance y.sub.w from the guide system (11) to the planar laser beam in order to control the steering mechanism (13) so as to minimise this distance y.sub.w.

Device for tracking a target, the device comprising an optical system and a quadrant photodetector, wherein the optical system is configured to project a light beam coming from the target at one spot on at least one of the quadrants, and the photodetector is configured to estimate a current position of the spot by weighting of light energies received by the quadrants. The optical system comprises an optical device configured, when the spot is entirely contained in only one of the quadrants, to enlarge the spot. The invention also relates to a tracking method likely to be implemented by this tracking device.

Optical ground terminals (OGT) allowing high optical rate communications for line of sight and non-line of sight operating conditions are disclosed. The described devices include a multifaceted structure where optical telescopes, phase array antennas, and arrays of optical detectors are disposed. Methods to calculate angle-of-arrival based the contributions from optical detectors are also disclosed.

A technique for commissioning of light sources may include receiving data indicating planned geographic positions of the light sources and data representing commissioning information of the light sources, receiving data indicating an actual geographic position of an angle of arrival receiver relative to the planned geographic positions of the light sources, receiving, at the angle of arrival receiver, beacon signals carrying respective light source identifiers that uniquely identify respective light sources, calculating actual geographic positions of the light sources based on a) the actual geographic position of the angle of arrival receiver relative to the planned geographic positions of the light sources and b) respective angles of arrival of the beacon signals, comparing the planned geographic positions to the actual geographic positions to correlate the commissioning information to the light source identifiers, and transmitting the correlated light source identifiers and commissioning information to the respective light sources.

A marker detecting device comprising: an image sensor, comprising a plurality of difference sensing regions; and a processing circuit, configured to determine a marker exists when a first difference of pixel value data of images captured by different ones of the difference sensing regions is larger than a marker difference threshold and to determine the marker does not exist when the first difference is smaller than the marker difference threshold.

Methods and devices for, among other applications, locating an emitter, comprises an array of receivers configured in different angular positions about the array relative to a corresponding array location axis, to receive a signal from the emitter having at least one burst containing a train of pulses, and at least one processor configured to profile pulse count values at each receiver, from one receiver to another in the array in relation to their respective angular positions, to designate a maximum peak angular position associated with a maximum pulse count value, and to attribute the peak angular position to an angular emitter location.

Methods and devices for, among other applications, locating an emitter, comprises an array of receivers configured in different angular positions about the array relative to a corresponding array location axis, to receive a signal from the emitter having at least one burst containing a train of pulses, and at least one processor configured to profile pulse count values at each receiver, from one receiver to another in the array in relation to their respective angular positions, to designate a maximum peak angular position associated with a maximum pulse count value, and to attribute the peak angular position to an angular emitter location.

A method for determining a localization parameter of an object includes generating a plurality of estimates of a first frequency-domain amplitude of a baseband signal from the object, each estimate corresponding one of a plurality of temporal segments of the baseband signal. The method also includes determining the first frequency-domain amplitude as most common value of the plurality of estimates, and determining the localization parameter therefrom. A localization system includes a memory and a microprocessor. The memory stores instructions and is configured to store a baseband signal having a temporal frequency component and a corresponding first frequency-domain amplitude. The microprocessor is adapted to execute the instructions to: (i) generate a plurality of estimates of the first frequency-domain amplitude each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of temporal segments of the baseband signal, and (ii) determine the first frequency-domain amplitude as the most common value of the estimates.