William Allen Kennedy
Engineers at City Vw Dr, Morrison, CO

6078849, Jun 20, 2000

Dec 11, 1998

9/209489

Daniel G. Brady - Littleton CO
Darrell R. Hougen - Littleton CO
William A Kennedy - Morrison CO
Jerome F. Sobetski - Littleton CO

Lockheed Martin Corporation - Bethesda MD

G06F 700, G06F 1700, G01S 300, B60T 716

701 28

A three phase control arrangement is employed after visual detection of a target at greater range than otherwise available. The first and last phases employ an optimization criterion for which errors do not vary with distance from a target; limiting the initial error and process error in an intermediate phase which controls approach trajectory to the intended docking location and yielding repeatable high accuracy docking. The three phase approach with different control criteria and control gain parameters makes feasible a docking maneuver that begins at a much greater range and potentially greater lateral separation from the destination than would otherwise be possible, while providing control of both the final location and final orientation of the vehicle. A preferred visual thresholding technique provides consistency of results over a wide range of illumination and contrast conditions while limiting the computation burden for target image acquisition and tracking.