491 research outputs found
A Comprehensive Introduction of Visual-Inertial Navigation
In this article, a tutorial introduction to visual-inertial navigation(VIN)
is presented. Visual and inertial perception are two complementary sensing
modalities. Cameras and inertial measurement units (IMU) are the corresponding
sensors for these two modalities. The low cost and light weight of camera-IMU
sensor combinations make them ubiquitous in robotic navigation. Visual-inertial
Navigation is a state estimation problem, that estimates the ego-motion and
local environment of the sensor platform. This paper presents visual-inertial
navigation in the classical state estimation framework, first illustrating the
estimation problem in terms of state variables and system models, including
related quantities representations (Parameterizations), IMU dynamic and camera
measurement models, and corresponding general probabilistic graphical models
(Factor Graph). Secondly, we investigate the existing model-based estimation
methodologies, these involve filter-based and optimization-based frameworks and
related on-manifold operations. We also discuss the calibration of some
relevant parameters, also initialization of state of interest in
optimization-based frameworks. Then the evaluation and improvement of VIN in
terms of accuracy, efficiency, and robustness are discussed. Finally, we
briefly mention the recent development of learning-based methods that may
become alternatives to traditional model-based methods.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figure
Keyframe-based visual–inertial odometry using nonlinear optimization
Combining visual and inertial measurements has become popular in mobile robotics, since the two sensing modalities offer complementary characteristics that make them the ideal choice for accurate visual–inertial odometry or simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). While historically the problem has been addressed with filtering, advancements in visual estimation suggest that nonlinear optimization offers superior accuracy, while still tractable in complexity thanks to the sparsity of the underlying problem. Taking inspiration from these findings, we formulate a rigorously probabilistic cost function that combines reprojection errors of landmarks and inertial terms. The problem is kept tractable and thus ensuring real-time operation by limiting the optimization to a bounded window of keyframes through marginalization. Keyframes may be spaced in time by arbitrary intervals, while still related by linearized inertial terms. We present evaluation results on complementary datasets recorded with our custom-built stereo visual–inertial hardware that accurately synchronizes accelerometer and gyroscope measurements with imagery. A comparison of both a stereo and monocular version of our algorithm with and without online extrinsics estimation is shown with respect to ground truth. Furthermore, we compare the performance to an implementation of a state-of-the-art stochastic cloning sliding-window filter. This competitive reference implementation performs tightly coupled filtering-based visual–inertial odometry. While our approach declaredly demands more computation, we show its superior performance in terms of accuracy
Continuous-Time Vs. Discrete-Time Vision-Based SLAM: A Comparative Study
Robotic practitioners generally approach the vision-based SLAM problem through discrete-time formulations. This has the advantage of a consolidated theory and very good understanding of success and failure cases. However, discrete-time SLAM needs tailored algorithms and simplifying assumptions when high-rate and/or asynchronous measurements, coming from different sensors, are present in the estimation process. Conversely, continuous-time SLAM, often overlooked by practitioners, does not suffer from these limitations. Indeed, it allows integrating new sensor data asynchronously without adding a new optimization variable for each new measurement. In this way, the integration of asynchronous or continuous high-rate streams of sensor data does not require tailored and highly-engineered algorithms, enabling the fusion of multiple sensor modalities in an intuitive fashion. On the down side, continuous time introduces a prior that could worsen the trajectory estimates in some unfavorable situations. In this work, we aim at systematically comparing the advantages and limitations of the two formulations in vision-based SLAM. To do so, we perform an extensive experimental analysis, varying robot type, speed of motion, and sensor modalities. Our experimental analysis suggests that, independently of the trajectory type, continuous-time SLAM is superior to its discrete counterpart whenever the sensors are not time-synchronized. In the context of this work, we developed, and open source, a modular and efficient software architecture containing state-of-the-art algorithms to solve the SLAM problem in discrete and continuous time
GNSS/Multi-Sensor Fusion Using Continuous-Time Factor Graph Optimization for Robust Localization
Accurate and robust vehicle localization in highly urbanized areas is
challenging. Sensors are often corrupted in those complicated and large-scale
environments. This paper introduces GNSS-FGO, an online and global trajectory
estimator that fuses GNSS observations alongside multiple sensor measurements
for robust vehicle localization. In GNSS-FGO, we fuse asynchronous sensor
measurements into the graph with a continuous-time trajectory representation
using Gaussian process regression. This enables querying states at arbitrary
timestamps so that sensor observations are fused without requiring strict state
and measurement synchronization. Thus, the proposed method presents a
generalized factor graph for multi-sensor fusion. To evaluate and study
different GNSS fusion strategies, we fuse GNSS measurements in loose and tight
coupling with a speed sensor, IMU, and lidar-odometry. We employed datasets
from measurement campaigns in Aachen, Duesseldorf, and Cologne in experimental
studies and presented comprehensive discussions on sensor observations,
smoother types, and hyperparameter tuning. Our results show that the proposed
approach enables robust trajectory estimation in dense urban areas, where the
classic multi-sensor fusion method fails due to sensor degradation. In a test
sequence containing a 17km route through Aachen, the proposed method results in
a mean 2D positioning error of 0.19m for loosely coupled GNSS fusion and 0.48m
while fusing raw GNSS observations with lidar odometry in tight coupling.Comment: Revision of arXiv:2211.0540
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