Six DOF offset sensing between two plates is important for automatic docking mechanisms. This paper presents an easy and inexpensive implementation of such a system using four commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) infrared (IR) light emitting diode (LED) emitters and two COTS IR receivers on each of two docking plates. The angular intensity distribution of an emitter and the sensitivity distribution of a receiver allow for estimation of the angle and distance between them. Simple experiments have

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... conducted indicating that such a setup is able to give positional offset in any of 6 degrees of error (x, y, z, pitch, roll, and yaw) within a range. A theoretical framework is also established using least squares minimization. The theoretical framework is g eneral and applies to other configurations of emitter and receiver parts and positioning.