A dense map building approach from spherical RGBD images

International audienceVisual mapping is a required capability for practical autonomous mobile robots where there exists a grow- ing industry with applications ranging from the service to industrial sectors. Prior to map building, Visual Odometry(VO) is an essential step required in the process of pose graph construction. In this work, we first propose to tackle the pose estimation problem by using both photometric and geometric information in a direct RGBD image registration method. Secondly, the mapping problem is tackled with a pose graph representation, whereby, given a database of augmented visual spheres, a travelled trajectory with redundant information is pruned out to a skeletal pose graph. Both methods are evaluated with data acquired with a recently proposed omnidirectional RGBD sensor for indoor environments

A Novel Method for Extrinsic Calibration of Multiple RGB-D Cameras Using Descriptor-Based Patterns

This letter presents a novel method to estimate the relative poses between RGB-D cameras with minimal overlapping fields of view in a panoramic RGB-D camera system. This calibration problem is relevant to applications such as indoor 3D mapping and robot navigation that can benefit from a 360$^\circ$ field of view using RGB-D cameras. The proposed approach relies on descriptor-based patterns to provide well-matched 2D keypoints in the case of a minimal overlapping field of view between cameras. Integrating the matched 2D keypoints with corresponding depth values, a set of 3D matched keypoints are constructed to calibrate multiple RGB-D cameras. Experiments validated the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed calibration approach, both superior to those of existing methods (800 ms vs. 5 seconds; rotation error of 0.56 degrees vs. 1.6 degrees; and translation error of 1.80 cm vs. 2.5 cm.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, under review by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters & ICR

Extrinsic calibration of a set of range cameras in 5 seconds without pattern

International audienceThe integration of several range cameras in a mobile platform is useful for applications in mobile robotics and autonomous vehicles that require a large field of view. This situation is increasingly interesting with the advent of low cost range cameras like those developed by Primesense. Calibrating such combination of sensors for any geometric configuration is a problem that has been recently solved through visual odometry (VO) and SLAM. However, this kind of solution is laborious to apply, requiring robust SLAM or VO in controlled environments. In this paper we propose a new uncomplicated technique for extrinsic calibration of range cameras that relies on finding and matching planes. The method that we present serves to calibrate two or more range cameras in an arbitrary configuration, requiring only to observe one plane from differ- ent viewpoints. The conditions to solve the problem are studied, and several practical examples are presented covering different geometric configurations, including an omnidirectional RGB- D sensor composed of 8 range cameras. The quality of this calibration is evaluated with several experiments that demon- strate an improvement of accuracy over design parameters, while providing a versatile solution that is extremely fast and easy to apply

Planar Shape Detection and Regularization in Tandem

International audienceWe present a method for planar shape detection and regularization from raw point sets. The geometric modeling and processing of man-made environments from measurement data often relies upon robust detection of planar primitive shapes. In addition, the detection and reinforcement of regularities between planar parts is a means to increase resilience to missing or defect-laden data as well as to reduce the complexity of models and algorithms down the modeling pipeline. The main novelty behind our method is to perform detection and regularization in tandem. We first sample a sparse set of seeds uniformly on the input point set, then perform in parallel shape detection through region growing, interleaved with regularization through detection and reinforcement of regular relationships (coplanar, parallel and orthogonal). In addition to addressing the end goal of regularization, such reinforcement also improves data fitting and provides guidance for clustering small parts into larger planar parts. We evaluate our approach against a wide range of inputs and under four criteria: geometric fidelity, coverage, regularity and running times. Our approach compares well with available implementations such as the efficient RANSAC-based approach proposed by Schnabel and co-authors in 2007