Direct extraction of tau information for use in ego-motion

Abstract

Avoidance collisions with obstacles is a critical function of any autonomous vehicle. This thesis considers the problem of utilising information about time to contact available in the ambient optic array. Motion-from-smear (W.G. Chen, Nandhakumar, & Martin, 1994; Geisler, 1999) is used to aid judgment of global tau (Kaiser & Mowafy, 1993; D. N. Lee, 1974, 1976). A robotic system employing motion-from­ smear was tested in a task requiring judgment of global tau and found to provide adequate accuracy (mean error= -0.52s) but poor precision (SD= 1.52s). Motion­ from-smear is also discussed with respect to its application to a novel formulation for composite tau and a use of motion parallax in stair descent.