Monocular Vision SLAM for Indoor Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents a novel indoor navigation and ranging strategy by using a monocular camera. The proposed algorithms are integrated with simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with a focus on indoor aerial vehicle applications. We experimentally validate the proposed algorithms by using a fully self-contained micro aerial vehicle (MAV) with on-board image processing and SLAM capabilities. The range measurement strategy is inspired by the key adaptive mechanisms for depth perception and pattern recognition found in humans and intelligent animals. The navigation strategy assumes an unknown, GPS-denied environment, which is representable via corner-like feature points and straight architectural lines. Experimental results show that the system is only limited by the capabilities of the camera and the availability of good corners

Prior knowledge-based deep learning method for indoor object recognition and application

Indoor object recognition is a key task for indoor navigation by mobile robots. Although previous work has produced impressive results in recognizing known and familiar objects, the research of indoor object recognition for robot is still insufficient. In order to improve the detection precision, our study proposed a prior knowledge-based deep learning method aimed to enable the robot to recognize indoor objects on sight. First, we integrate the public Indoor dataset and the private frames of videos (FoVs) dataset to train a convolutional neural network (CNN). Second, mean images, which are used as a type of colour knowledge, are generated for all the classes in the Indoor dataset. The distance between every mean image and the input image produces the class weight vector. Scene knowledge, which consists of frequencies of occurrence of objects in the scene, is then employed as another prior knowledge to determine the scene weight. Finally, when a detection request is launched, the two vectors together with a vector of classification probability instigated by the deep model are multiplied to produce a decision vector for classification. Experiments show that detection precision can be improved by employing the prior colour and scene knowledge. In addition, we applied the method to object recognition in a video. The results showed potential application of the method for robot vision

Conceptual spatial representations for indoor mobile robots

We present an approach for creating conceptual representations of human-made indoor environments using mobile robots. The concepts refer to spatial and functional properties of typical indoor environments. Following findings in cognitive psychology, our model is composed of layers representing maps at different levels of abstraction. The complete system is integrated in a mobile robot endowed with laser and vision sensors for place and object recognition. The system also incorporates a linguistic framework that actively supports the map acquisition process, and which is used for situated dialogue. Finally, we discuss the capabilities of the integrated system