CONSTRAINED KEY FRAME LOCALIZATION AND MAPPING FOR VISION-AIDED INERTIAL NAVIGATION

Estimation techniques for vision-aided inertial navigation are described. In one example, a vision-aided inertial navigation system (VINS) comprises an image source to produce image data for a keyframe and one or more non-keyframes along a trajectory, the one or more non-keyframes preceding the keyframe along the trajectory. The VINS comprises an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to produce IMU data indicative of a motion of the VINS along the trajectory for the keyframe and the one or more non-keyframes, and a processing unit comprising an estimator that processes the IMU data and the image data to compute state estimates of the VINS. The estimator computes the state estimates of the VINS for the keyframe by constraining the state estimates based on the IMU data and the image data for the one or more non-keyframes of the VINS without computing state estimates of the VINS for the one or more non-keyframes.