Accurate Image Depth Determination for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation

This paper examines accurate image depth determination in order to achieve accurate navigation. This is critical for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV aerial refueling and also space debris clearance operations. The theory behind image depth calculation is explained and then synthetic pixel data is manufactured in order to determine a 95% confidence interval on image depth under various errors conditions. It is shown that without image rectification accurate depth can only be calculated for stereo cameras pointing without any axial rotations. With image rectification and under the stated conditions, image depth can be calculated with 6% or less relative error. Future research is discussed.