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In the technical discipline of computer vision, the concept of using stereo cameras for depth perception has been motivated by the fact that, in human vision, one percept can arise from two retinal images as a result of the process of “fusion” in the visual cortex. If mankind wants to apply this concept to computer controlled machines it must be inferred that knowledge of the psychological process is sufficient to emulate, at least in a weak sense, the human sensory phenomena called vision. Typically, models for this emulation process have been computationally intensive. They contained or required massive amounts of data and thus resulted in very time consuming analytic solutions for depth or range information. The visual process, however complex, does not operate independently of other brain functions. For instance, the superior colliculus of the brain is used to generate information about visual field motion and many visual reflexes. The superior colliculus is also a multi-modal sensory area which includes auditory and somaethetic information [1]. This visual system-brain function connection must be kept in mind when one is attempting to utilize general visual system models to control manipulative processes in order to accomplish a task.
In this paper we investigate the utilization of binocular fusion to determine range and heading angle for the specialized control task of guidance for an autonomous vehicle in a convoy following application. It is therefore necessary to develop the vision model, to define the decision space and to use multi-modal information when appropriate. Both parallel and convergent vision models have been utilized for this task. A comparison of calibration results, the mathematical advantages of a log-polar decision space and the resulting real-time structure for controlling a vehicle in a convoy mode are given from actual experimental evaluation.
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