Combining omnidirectional vision with polarization vision for robot navigation

La polarisation est le phénomène qui décrit les orientations des oscillations des ondes lumineuses qui sont limitées en direction. La lumière polarisée est largement utilisée dans le règne animal,à partir de la recherche de nourriture, la défense et la communication et la navigation. Le chapitre (1) aborde brièvement certains aspects importants de la polarisation et explique notre problématique de recherche. Nous visons à utiliser un capteur polarimétrique-catadioptrique car il existe de nombreuses applications qui peuvent bénéficier d'une telle combinaison en vision par ordinateur et en robotique, en particulier pour l'estimation d'attitude et les applications de navigation. Le chapitre (2) couvre essentiellement l'état de l'art de l'estimation d'attitude basée sur la vision.Quand la lumière non-polarisée du soleil pénètre dans l'atmosphère, l'air entraine une diffusion de Rayleigh, et la lumière devient partiellement linéairement polarisée. Le chapitre (3) présente les motifs de polarisation de la lumière naturelle et couvre l'état de l'art des méthodes d'acquisition des motifs de polarisation de la lumière naturelle utilisant des capteurs omnidirectionnels (par exemple fisheye et capteurs catadioptriques). Nous expliquons également les caractéristiques de polarisation de la lumière naturelle et donnons une nouvelle dérivation théorique de son angle de polarisation.Notre objectif est d'obtenir une vue omnidirectionnelle à 360 associée aux caractéristiques de polarisation. Pour ce faire, ce travail est basé sur des capteurs catadioptriques qui sont composées de surfaces réfléchissantes et de lentilles. Généralement, la surface réfléchissante est métallique et donc l'état de polarisation de la lumière incidente, qui est le plus souvent partiellement linéairement polarisée, est modifiée pour être polarisée elliptiquement après réflexion. A partir de la mesure de l'état de polarisation de la lumière réfléchie, nous voulons obtenir l'état de polarisation incident. Le chapitre (4) propose une nouvelle méthode pour mesurer les paramètres de polarisation de la lumière en utilisant un capteur catadioptrique. La possibilité de mesurer le vecteur de Stokes du rayon incident est démontré à partir de trois composants du vecteur de Stokes du rayon réfléchi sur les quatre existants.Lorsque les motifs de polarisation incidents sont disponibles, les angles zénithal et azimutal du soleil peuvent être directement estimés à l'aide de ces modèles. Le chapitre (5) traite de l'orientation et de la navigation de robot basées sur la polarisation et différents algorithmes sont proposés pour estimer ces angles dans ce chapitre. A notre connaissance, l'angle zénithal du soleil est pour la première fois estimé dans ce travail à partir des schémas de polarisation incidents. Nous proposons également d'estimer l'orientation d'un véhicule à partir de ces motifs de polarisation.Enfin, le travail est conclu et les possibles perspectives de recherche sont discutées dans le chapitre (6). D'autres exemples de schémas de polarisation de la lumière naturelle, leur calibrage et des applications sont proposées en annexe (B).Notre travail pourrait ouvrir un accès au monde de la vision polarimétrique omnidirectionnelle en plus des approches conventionnelles. Cela inclut l'orientation bio-inspirée des robots, des applications de navigation, ou bien la localisation en plein air pour laquelle les motifs de polarisation de la lumière naturelle associés à l'orientation du soleil à une heure précise peuvent aboutir à la localisation géographique d'un véhiculePolarization is the phenomenon that describes the oscillations orientations of the light waves which are restricted in direction. Polarized light has multiple uses in the animal kingdom ranging from foraging, defense and communication to orientation and navigation. Chapter (1) briefly covers some important aspects of polarization and explains our research problem. We are aiming to use a polarimetric-catadioptric sensor since there are many applications which can benefit from such combination in computer vision and robotics specially robot orientation (attitude estimation) and navigation applications. Chapter (2) mainly covers the state of art of visual based attitude estimation.As the unpolarized sunlight enters the Earth s atmosphere, it is Rayleigh-scattered by air, and it becomes partially linearly polarized. This skylight polarization provides a signi cant clue to understanding the environment. Its state conveys the information for obtaining the sun orientation. Robot navigation, sensor planning, and many other applications may bene t from using this navigation clue. Chapter (3) covers the state of art in capturing the skylight polarization patterns using omnidirectional sensors (e.g fisheye and catadioptric sensors). It also explains the skylight polarization characteristics and gives a new theoretical derivation of the skylight angle of polarization pattern. Our aim is to obtain an omnidirectional 360 view combined with polarization characteristics. Hence, this work is based on catadioptric sensors which are composed of reflective surfaces and lenses. Usually the reflective surface is metallic and hence the incident skylight polarization state, which is mostly partially linearly polarized, is changed to be elliptically polarized after reflection. Given the measured reflected polarization state, we want to obtain the incident polarization state. Chapter (4) proposes a method to measure the light polarization parameters using a catadioptric sensor. The possibility to measure the incident Stokes is proved given three Stokes out of the four reflected Stokes. Once the incident polarization patterns are available, the solar angles can be directly estimated using these patterns. Chapter (5) discusses polarization based robot orientation and navigation and proposes new algorithms to estimate these solar angles where, to the best of our knowledge, the sun zenith angle is firstly estimated in this work given these incident polarization patterns. We also propose to estimate any vehicle orientation given these polarization patterns. Finally the work is concluded and possible future research directions are discussed in chapter (6). More examples of skylight polarization patterns, their calibration, and the proposed applications are given in appendix (B). Our work may pave the way to move from the conventional polarization vision world to the omnidirectional one. It enables bio-inspired robot orientation and navigation applications and possible outdoor localization based on the skylight polarization patterns where given the solar angles at a certain date and instant of time may infer the current vehicle geographical location.DIJON-BU Doc.électronique (212319901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Computational Cameras: Approaches, Benefits and Limits

A computational camera uses a combination of optics and software to produce images that cannot be taken with traditional cameras. In the last decade, computational imaging has emerged as a vibrant field of research. A wide variety of computational cameras have been demonstrated - some designed to achieve new imaging functionalities and others to reduce the complexity of traditional imaging. In this article, we describe how computational cameras have evolved and present a taxonomy for the technical approaches they use. We explore the benefits and limits of computational imaging, and describe how it is related to the adjacent and overlapping fields of digital imaging, computational photography and computational image sensors

Omnidirectional Stereo Vision for Autonomous Vehicles

Environment perception with cameras is an important requirement for many applications for autonomous vehicles and robots. This work presents a stereoscopic omnidirectional camera system for autonomous vehicles which resolves the problem of a limited field of view and provides a 360° panoramic view of the environment. We present a new projection model for these cameras and show that the camera setup overcomes major drawbacks of traditional perspective cameras in many applications

ORCa: Glossy Objects as Radiance Field Cameras

Reflections on glossy objects contain valuable and hidden information about the surrounding environment. By converting these objects into cameras, we can unlock exciting applications, including imaging beyond the camera's field-of-view and from seemingly impossible vantage points, e.g. from reflections on the human eye. However, this task is challenging because reflections depend jointly on object geometry, material properties, the 3D environment, and the observer viewing direction. Our approach converts glossy objects with unknown geometry into radiance-field cameras to image the world from the object's perspective. Our key insight is to convert the object surface into a virtual sensor that captures cast reflections as a 2D projection of the 5D environment radiance field visible to the object. We show that recovering the environment radiance fields enables depth and radiance estimation from the object to its surroundings in addition to beyond field-of-view novel-view synthesis, i.e. rendering of novel views that are only directly-visible to the glossy object present in the scene, but not the observer. Moreover, using the radiance field we can image around occluders caused by close-by objects in the scene. Our method is trained end-to-end on multi-view images of the object and jointly estimates object geometry, diffuse radiance, and the 5D environment radiance field.Comment: for more information, see https://ktiwary2.github.io/objectsascam

Martian orbital photographic study Technical summary report

Objectives and instrumentation for Mars orbital photographic experimen

Omnidirectional Stereo Vision for Autonomous Vehicles

Environment perception with cameras is an important requirement for many applications for autonomous vehicles and robots. This work presents a stereoscopic omnidirectional camera system for autonomous vehicles which resolves the problem of a limited field of view and provides a 360° panoramic view of the environment. We present a new projection model for these cameras and show that the camera setup overcomes major drawbacks of traditional perspective cameras in many applications

Terahertz Technology and Its Applications

The Terahertz frequency range (0.1 – 10)THz has demonstrated to provide many opportunities in prominent research fields such as high-speed communications, biomedicine, sensing, and imaging. This spectral range, lying between electronics and photonics, has been historically known as “terahertz gap” because of the lack of experimental as well as fabrication technologies. However, many efforts are now being carried out worldwide in order improve technology working at this frequency range. This book represents a mechanism to highlight some of the work being done within this range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The topics covered include non-destructive testing, teraherz imaging and sensing, among others