Towards binocular active vision in a robot head system

This paper presents the first results of an investigation and pilot study into an active, binocular vision system that combines binocular vergence, object recognition and attention control in a unified framework. The prototype developed is capable of identifying, targeting, verging on and recognizing objects in a highly-cluttered scene without the need for calibration or other knowledge of the camera geometry. This is achieved by implementing all image analysis in a symbolic space without creating explicit pixel-space maps. The system structure is based on the ‘searchlight metaphor’ of biological systems. We present results of a first pilot investigation that yield a maximum vergence error of 6.4 pixels, while seven of nine known objects were recognized in a high-cluttered environment. Finally a “stepping stone” visual search strategy was demonstrated, taking a total of 40 saccades to find two known objects in the workspace, neither of which appeared simultaneously within the Field of View resulting from any individual saccade

A Novel Hybrid SVM-CNN Method for Extracting Characteristics and Classifying Cattle Branding

A tool that can perform the automatic identification of cattle brandings is essential for the government agencies responsible for the record, control and inspection of this activity. This article presents a novel hybrid method that uses Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to extract features from images and Support Vector Machines (SVM) to classify the brandings. The experiments were performed using a cattle branding image set provided by the City Hall of Bagé, Brazil. Metrics of Overall Accuracy, Recall, Precision, Kappa Coefficient, and Processing Time were used in order to assess the proposed tool. The results obtained here were satisfactory, reaching a Overall Accuracy of 93.11% in the first experiment with 39 brandings and 1,950 sample images, and 95.34% of accuracy in the second experiment, with the same 39 brandings, but with 2,730 sample images. The processing time attained in the experiments was 31.661s and 41.749s, respectively

Urban detection, delimitation and morphology: comparative analysis of selective "megacities"

Postprint (published version

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Wildland and Forest Fires

Wildfires represent an important natural risk causing economic losses, human death and important environmental damage. In recent years, we witness an increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards the development of dedicated solutions for wildland and forest fire assistance and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data collection and fire characterization within small scale environments. However, wildfires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were proposed. UAS have proven to be useful due to their maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper we review previous work related to the use of UAS in wildfires. Onboard sensor instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are considered. In addition, we present some of the recent frameworks proposing the use of both aerial vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UV) for a more efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale.Comment: A recent published version of this paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/drones501001