80,111 research outputs found
On the Calibration of Active Binocular and RGBD Vision Systems for Dual-Arm Robots
This paper describes a camera and hand-eye
calibration methodology for integrating an active binocular
robot head within a dual-arm robot. For this purpose, we
derive the forward kinematic model of our active robot head
and describe our methodology for calibrating and integrating
our robot head. This rigid calibration provides a closedform
hand-to-eye solution. We then present an approach for
updating dynamically camera external parameters for optimal
3D reconstruction that are the foundation for robotic tasks such
as grasping and manipulating rigid and deformable objects. We
show from experimental results that our robot head achieves
an overall sub millimetre accuracy of less than 0.3 millimetres
while recovering the 3D structure of a scene. In addition, we
report a comparative study between current RGBD cameras
and our active stereo head within two dual-arm robotic testbeds
that demonstrates the accuracy and portability of our proposed
methodology
Hybrid Focal Stereo Networks for Pattern Analysis in Homogeneous Scenes
In this paper we address the problem of multiple camera calibration in the
presence of a homogeneous scene, and without the possibility of employing
calibration object based methods. The proposed solution exploits salient
features present in a larger field of view, but instead of employing active
vision we replace the cameras with stereo rigs featuring a long focal analysis
camera, as well as a short focal registration camera. Thus, we are able to
propose an accurate solution which does not require intrinsic variation models
as in the case of zooming cameras. Moreover, the availability of the two views
simultaneously in each rig allows for pose re-estimation between rigs as often
as necessary. The algorithm has been successfully validated in an indoor
setting, as well as on a difficult scene featuring a highly dense pilgrim crowd
in Makkah.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Machine Vision and Application
Robust visual servoing in 3d reaching tasks
This paper describes a novel approach to the problem of reaching an object in space under visual guidance. The approach is characterized by a great robustness to calibration errors, such that virtually no calibration is required. Servoing is based on binocular vision: a continuous measure of the end-effector motion field, derived from real-time computation of the binocular optical flow over the stereo images, is compared with the actual position of the target and the relative error in the end-effector trajectory is continuously corrected. The paper outlines the general framework of the approach, shows how visual measures are obtained and discusses the synthesis of the controller along with its stability analysis. Real-time experiments are presented to show the applicability of the approach in real 3-D applications
Head Tracking via Robust Registration in Texture Map Images
A novel method for 3D head tracking in the presence of large head rotations and facial expression changes is described. Tracking is formulated in terms of color image registration in the texture map of a 3D surface model. Model appearance is recursively updated via image mosaicking in the texture map as the head orientation varies. The resulting dynamic texture map provides a stabilized view of the face that can be used as input to many existing 2D techniques for face recognition, facial expressions analysis, lip reading, and eye tracking. Parameters are estimated via a robust minimization procedure; this provides robustness to occlusions, wrinkles, shadows, and specular highlights. The system was tested on a variety of sequences taken with low quality, uncalibrated video cameras. Experimental results are reported
Event-based Vision: A Survey
Event cameras are bio-inspired sensors that differ from conventional frame
cameras: Instead of capturing images at a fixed rate, they asynchronously
measure per-pixel brightness changes, and output a stream of events that encode
the time, location and sign of the brightness changes. Event cameras offer
attractive properties compared to traditional cameras: high temporal resolution
(in the order of microseconds), very high dynamic range (140 dB vs. 60 dB), low
power consumption, and high pixel bandwidth (on the order of kHz) resulting in
reduced motion blur. Hence, event cameras have a large potential for robotics
and computer vision in challenging scenarios for traditional cameras, such as
low-latency, high speed, and high dynamic range. However, novel methods are
required to process the unconventional output of these sensors in order to
unlock their potential. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the
emerging field of event-based vision, with a focus on the applications and the
algorithms developed to unlock the outstanding properties of event cameras. We
present event cameras from their working principle, the actual sensors that are
available and the tasks that they have been used for, from low-level vision
(feature detection and tracking, optic flow, etc.) to high-level vision
(reconstruction, segmentation, recognition). We also discuss the techniques
developed to process events, including learning-based techniques, as well as
specialized processors for these novel sensors, such as spiking neural
networks. Additionally, we highlight the challenges that remain to be tackled
and the opportunities that lie ahead in the search for a more efficient,
bio-inspired way for machines to perceive and interact with the world
Aggressive Quadrotor Flight through Narrow Gaps with Onboard Sensing and Computing using Active Vision
We address one of the main challenges towards autonomous quadrotor flight in
complex environments, which is flight through narrow gaps. While previous works
relied on off-board localization systems or on accurate prior knowledge of the
gap position and orientation, we rely solely on onboard sensing and computing
and estimate the full state by fusing gap detection from a single onboard
camera with an IMU. This problem is challenging for two reasons: (i) the
quadrotor pose uncertainty with respect to the gap increases quadratically with
the distance from the gap; (ii) the quadrotor has to actively control its
orientation towards the gap to enable state estimation (i.e., active vision).
We solve this problem by generating a trajectory that considers geometric,
dynamic, and perception constraints: during the approach maneuver, the
quadrotor always faces the gap to allow state estimation, while respecting the
vehicle dynamics; during the traverse through the gap, the distance of the
quadrotor to the edges of the gap is maximized. Furthermore, we replan the
trajectory during its execution to cope with the varying uncertainty of the
state estimate. We successfully evaluate and demonstrate the proposed approach
in many real experiments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work
that addresses and achieves autonomous, aggressive flight through narrow gaps
using only onboard sensing and computing and without prior knowledge of the
pose of the gap
Dynamic Estimation of Rigid Motion from Perspective Views via Recursive Identification of Exterior Differential Systems with Parameters on a Topological Manifold
We formulate the problem of estimating the motion of a rigid object viewed under perspective projection as the identification of a dynamic model in Exterior Differential form with parameters on a topological manifold.
We first describe a general method for recursive identification of nonlinear implicit systems using prediction error criteria. The parameters are allowed to move slowly on some topological (not necessarily smooth) manifold. The basic recursion is solved in two different ways: one is based on a simple extension of the traditional Kalman Filter to nonlinear and implicit measurement constraints, the other may be regarded as a generalized "Gauss-Newton" iteration, akin to traditional Recursive Prediction Error Method techniques in linear identification. A derivation of the "Implicit Extended Kalman Filter" (IEKF) is reported in the appendix.
The ID framework is then applied to solving the visual motion problem: it indeed is possible to characterize it in terms of identification of an Exterior Differential System with parameters living on a C0 topological manifold, called the "essential manifold". We consider two alternative estimation paradigms. The first is in the local coordinates of the essential manifold: we estimate the state of a nonlinear implicit model on a linear space. The second is obtained by a linear update on the (linear) embedding space followed by a projection onto the essential manifold. These schemes proved successful in performing the motion estimation task, as we show in experiments on real and noisy synthetic image sequences
Encoderless Gimbal Calibration of Dynamic Multi-Camera Clusters
Dynamic Camera Clusters (DCCs) are multi-camera systems where one or more
cameras are mounted on actuated mechanisms such as a gimbal. Existing methods
for DCC calibration rely on joint angle measurements to resolve the
time-varying transformation between the dynamic and static camera. This
information is usually provided by motor encoders, however, joint angle
measurements are not always readily available on off-the-shelf mechanisms. In
this paper, we present an encoderless approach for DCC calibration which
simultaneously estimates the kinematic parameters of the transformation chain
as well as the unknown joint angles. We also demonstrate the integration of an
encoderless gimbal mechanism with a state-of-the art VIO algorithm, and show
the extensions required in order to perform simultaneous online estimation of
the joint angles and vehicle localization state. The proposed calibration
approach is validated both in simulation and on a physical DCC composed of a
2-DOF gimbal mounted on a UAV. Finally, we show the experimental results of the
calibrated mechanism integrated into the OKVIS VIO package, and demonstrate
successful online joint angle estimation while maintaining localization
accuracy that is comparable to a standard static multi-camera configuration.Comment: ICRA 201
Efficient 2D-3D Matching for Multi-Camera Visual Localization
Visual localization, i.e., determining the position and orientation of a
vehicle with respect to a map, is a key problem in autonomous driving. We
present a multicamera visual inertial localization algorithm for large scale
environments. To efficiently and effectively match features against a pre-built
global 3D map, we propose a prioritized feature matching scheme for
multi-camera systems. In contrast to existing works, designed for monocular
cameras, we (1) tailor the prioritization function to the multi-camera setup
and (2) run feature matching and pose estimation in parallel. This
significantly accelerates the matching and pose estimation stages and allows us
to dynamically adapt the matching efforts based on the surrounding environment.
In addition, we show how pose priors can be integrated into the localization
system to increase efficiency and robustness. Finally, we extend our algorithm
by fusing the absolute pose estimates with motion estimates from a multi-camera
visual inertial odometry pipeline (VIO). This results in a system that provides
reliable and drift-less pose estimation. Extensive experiments show that our
localization runs fast and robust under varying conditions, and that our
extended algorithm enables reliable real-time pose estimation.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
- âŠ