A fast algorithm for image-based ranging

Image-based ranging has emerged as a critical issue in the low altitude operation of flight vehicles such as rotorcraft and planetary landers. These flight regimes require ranging systems for recovering the geometry of the terrain and obstacles for use with guidance algorithms. The development of a ranging equation combining image irradiance together with various order spatial partial derivatives and the vehicle motion parameters is discussed. The ranging equation is in the form of a polynomial in scene depth. Two-dimensional linear filters are then used to compute the coefficients of this polynomial to result in a fast image-based ranging algorithm. Performance of the algorithm is demonstrated using laboratory images.