Guidelines for practical navigation systems based on wide-field-integration of optic flow

This paper shows some guidelines to improve the estimation accuracy of a navigation system, which is based on wide-field-integration (WFI) of optic flow. Optic flow is a vector field of relative velocities obtained by photoreceptors in image sensors, and WFI of optic flow enables motion estimation robust by integrating wide range of optic flow. Since the system has several attractive features (small size, light weight, and low computation), it is applicable to an autonomous control system of micro air vehicles. However, due to some restrictions of real systems, WFI of optic flow theory should be applied while considering sensor arrangement for better estimation. In this paper, first an adequate number and adequate optical-axes of image sensors are investigated. Then, a new estimation system combining a gyro sensor with WFI of optic flow is discussed by numerical simulations. Finally, the essential effect for the number of cameras are verified in experiments.