Developing accurate long-distance 6-DOF motion detection with one-dimensional laser sensors: Three-beam detection system

Strong demands for accurate long-range 6-DOF motion sensors have been arising for the purposes of navigation and object tracking in maritime transportation. Up to now, high-end sensors such as a differential global positioning system, laser tracker, and motion-capture camera have been utilized for long-distance sensing in spite of their high cost. In this paper, we developed a long-range motion-sensing system with the combination of low-cost sensors including infrared markers, three 1-D laser sensors, and vision cameras. A proposed sensing system, referred to as the three-beam detector, can measure the 6-DOF motion of a dynamic target, even in an outdoor environment, without any prior knowledge of the initial condition of the target. Through various static and dynamic experiments, the three-beam detector is validated to have the accuracy of 3 mm at a 30-m distance.