How do people walk to a moving target, and what visual information do they use to do so? Under a pursuit strategy, one would head toward the target's current position, whereas under an interception strategy, one would lead the target, ideally by maintaining a constant target-heading angle (or constant bearing angle). Either strategy may be guided by the egocentric direction of the target, local...

We present in this paper a method to incrementally estimate the heading of a robot using panoramic images grabbed while the robot moves in its environment. We present results that show a performance similar to a magnetic compass, if not better in some cases. In particular, the heading measured by the visual compass does not drift as normal odometry does, provided the robot turns roughly by the ...

Night migratory songbirds can use stars, sun, geomagnetic field, and polarized light for orientation when tested in captivity. We studied the interaction of magnetic, stellar, and twilight orientation cues in free-flying songbirds. We exposed Catharus thrushes to eastward-turned magnetic fields during the twilight period before takeoff and then followed them for up to 1100 kilometers. Instead o...

The ocean wave signatures within conventional noncoherent marine X-band radar (MR) image sequences can be used to derive near-surface current information. On ships, an accurate near-real-time record of the near-surface current could improve navigational safety. It could also advance understanding of air–sea interaction processes. The standard shipboard MR near-surface current estimates were fou...

The authors present several methods for heading error suppression in all-optical alkali-vapor magnetometers geomagnetic field ranges. These improvements could result more precise measurements of Earth's magnetic and the development compact miniaturized sensors.

Abstract: The problem of heading drift error using only low cost Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU) has not been well solved. In this paper, a heading estimation method with real-time compensation based on Kalman filter has been proposed, abbreviated as KHD. For the KHD method, a unified heading error model is established for various predictable errors in magnetic c...

A simple linear neural network modelled on areas MT and MST of primate visual cortex can determine the direction of self-motion of an observer by using the optical flow field induced by observer translation relative to a rigid planar environment. The model's input layer consists of a set of motion detectors covering a 20 x 20 portion of the visual field with a subset of eight detectors selectiv...

Most autonomous vehicles use GPS to determine vehicle location and heading. Using GPS for vehicle autonomous driving posts a few challenges. It does not look far ahead of the vehicle and requires frequent adjustment of vehicle heading. This results in an unstable control system and increases the chance of unstable driving behavior. Unlike this kind of passive or reactive control system, human d...