High-performance indoor positioning and pose estimation with time-of-flight 3D imaging

Abstract

In recent years, fields such as industrial automation, virtual and augmented reality and autonomous robotics increased the demand for location-awareness of electronic devices. Image sensor based inside-out localization and tracking systems are sufficiently accurate to determine the position and orientation of electronic devices. Without additional sensors however, these systems are impaired in reaching high update-rates, handling fast motions, and tend to be unable to provide localization with low latency. We present a new localization approach in our work, using Time-of-Flight 3D sensors in combination with small reflective markers. This allows to establish high-performance optical localization systems, delivering the position and orientation of a device at a rate of several hundred Hz. A novel Time-of-Flight 3D sensing procedure is introduced, enabling to measure the 3D positions of fast moving targets at unprecedented frame-rates. With this work, we aim to close the gap between indoor positioning and motion tracking, enabling a new class of location-aware devices.