SLAM for Visually Impaired People: A Survey

In recent decades, several assistive technologies for visually impaired and blind (VIB) people have been developed to improve their ability to navigate independently and safely. At the same time, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques have become sufficiently robust and efficient to be adopted in the development of assistive technologies. In this paper, we first report the results of an anonymous survey conducted with VIB people to understand their experience and needs; we focus on digital assistive technologies that help them with indoor and outdoor navigation. Then, we present a literature review of assistive technologies based on SLAM. We discuss proposed approaches and indicate their pros and cons. We conclude by presenting future opportunities and challenges in this domain.Comment: 26 pages, 5 tables, 3 figure

적분 및 매개변수 기법 융합을 이용한 스마트폰 다중 동작에서 보행 항법

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 기계항공공학부, 2020. 8. 박찬국.In this dissertation, an IA-PA fusion-based PDR (Pedestrian Dead Reckoning) using low-cost inertial sensors is proposed to improve the indoor position estimation. Specifically, an IA (Integration Approach)-based PDR algorithm combined with measurements from PA (Parametric Approach) is constructed so that the algorithm is operated even in various poses that occur when a pedestrian moves with a smartphone indoors. In addition, I propose an algorithm that estimates the device attitude robustly in a disturbing situation by an ellipsoidal method. In addition, by using the machine learning-based pose recognition, it is possible to improve the position estimation performance by varying the measurement update according to the poses. First, I propose an adaptive attitude estimation based on ellipsoid technique to accurately estimate the direction of movement of a smartphone device. The AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System) uses an accelerometer and a magnetometer as measurements to calculate the attitude based on the gyro and to compensate for drift caused by gyro sensor errors. In general, the attitude estimation performance is poor in acceleration and geomagnetic disturbance situations, but in order to effectively improve the estimation performance, this dissertation proposes an ellipsoid-based adaptive attitude estimation technique. When a measurement disturbance comes in, it is possible to update the measurement more accurately than the adaptive estimation technique without considering the direction by adjusting the measurement covariance with the ellipsoid method considering the direction of the disturbance. In particular, when the disturbance only comes in one axis, the proposed algorithm can use the measurement partly by updating the other two axes considering the direction. The proposed algorithm shows its effectiveness in attitude estimation under disturbances through the rate table and motion capture equipment. Next, I propose a PDR algorithm that integrates IA and PA that can be operated in various poses. When moving indoors using a smartphone, there are many degrees of freedom, so various poses such as making a phone call, texting, and putting a pants pocket are possible. In the existing smartphone-based positioning algorithms, the position is estimated based on the PA, which can be used only when the pedestrian's walking direction and the device's direction coincide, and if it does not, the position error due to the mismatch in angle is large. In order to solve this problem, this dissertation proposes an algorithm that constructs state variables based on the IA and uses the position vector from the PA as a measurement. If the walking direction and the device heading do not match based on the pose recognized through machine learning technique, the position is updated in consideration of the direction calculated using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and the step length obtained through the PA. It can be operated robustly even in various poses that occur. Through experiments considering various operating conditions and paths, it is confirmed that the proposed method stably estimates the position and improves performance even in various indoor environments.본 논문에서는 저가형 관성센서를 이용한 보행항법시스템 (PDR: Pedestrian Dead Reckoning)의 성능 향상 알고리즘을 제안한다. 구체적으로 보행자가 실내에서 스마트폰을 들고 이동할 때 발생하는 다양한 동작 상황에서도 운용될 수 있도록, 매개변수 기반 측정치를 사용하는 적분 기반의 보행자 항법 알고리즘을 구성한다. 또한 타원체 기반 자세 추정 알고리즘을 구성하여 외란 상황에서도 강인하게 자세를 추정하는 알고리즘을 제안한다. 추가적으로 기계학습 기반의 동작 인식 정보를 이용, 동작에 따른 측정치 업데이트를 달리함으로써 위치 추정 성능을 향상시킨다. 먼저 스마트폰 기기의 이동 방향을 정확하게 추정하기 위해 타원체 기법 기반 적응 자세 추정을 제안한다. 자세 추정 기법 (AHRS: Attitude and Heading Reference System)은 자이로를 기반으로 자세를 계산하고 자이로 센서오차에 의해 발생하는 드리프트를 보정하기 위해 측정치로 가속도계와 지자계를 사용한다. 일반적으로 가속 및 지자계 외란 상황에서는 자세 추정 성능이 떨어지는데, 추정 성능을 효과적으로 향상시키기 위해 본 논문에서는 타원체 기반 적응 자세 추정 기법을 제안한다. 측정치 외란이 들어오는 경우, 외란의 방향을 고려하여 타원체 기법으로 측정치 공분산을 조정해줌으로써 방향을 고려하지 않은 적응 추정 기법보다 정확하게 측정치 업데이트를 할 수 있다. 특히 외란이 한 축으로만 들어오는 경우, 제안한 알고리즘은 방향을 고려해 나머지 두 축에 대해서는 업데이트 해줌으로써 측정치를 부분적으로 사용할 수 있다. 레이트 테이블, 모션 캡쳐 장비를 통해 제안한 알고리즘의 자세 성능이 향상됨을 확인하였다. 다음으로 다양한 동작에서도 운용 가능한 적분 및 매개변수 기법을 융합하는 보행항법 알고리즘을 제안한다. 스마트폰을 이용해 실내를 이동할 때에는 자유도가 크기 때문에 전화 걸기, 문자, 바지 주머니 넣기 등 다양한 동작이 발생 가능하다. 기존의 스마트폰 기반 보행 항법에서는 매개변수 기법을 기반으로 위치를 추정하는데, 이는 보행자의 진행 방향과 기기의 방향이 일치하는 경우에만 사용 가능하며 일치하지 않는 경우 자세 오차로 인한 위치 오차가 크게 발생한다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서는 적분 기반 기법을 기반으로 상태변수를 구성하고 매개변수 기법을 통해 나오는 위치 벡터를 측정치로 사용하는 알고리즘을 제안한다. 만약 기계학습을 통해 인식한 동작을 바탕으로 진행 방향과 기기 방향이 일치하지 않는 경우, 주성분 분석을 통해 계산한 진행방향을 이용해 진행 방향을, 매개변수 기법을 통해 얻은 보폭으로 거리를 업데이트해 줌으로써 보행 중 발생하는 여러 동작에서도 강인하게 운용할 수 있다. 다양한 동작 상황 및 경로를 고려한 실험을 통해 위에서 제안한 방법이 다양한 실내 환경에서도 안정적으로 위치를 추정하고 성능이 향상됨을 확인하였다.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Background 1 1.2 Objectives and Contribution 5 1.3 Organization of the Dissertation 6 Chapter 2 Pedestrian Dead Reckoning System 8 2.1 Overview of Pedestrian Dead Reckoning 8 2.2 Parametric Approach 9 2.2.1 Step detection algorithm 11 2.2.2 Step length estimation algorithm 13 2.2.3 Heading estimation 14 2.3 Integration Approach 15 2.3.1 Extended Kalman filter 16 2.3.2 INS-EKF-ZUPT 19 2.4 Activity Recognition using Machine Learning 21 2.4.1 Challenges in HAR 21 2.4.2 Activity recognition chain 22 Chapter 3 Attitude Estimation in Smartphone 26 3.1 Adaptive Attitude Estimation in Smartphone 26 3.1.1 Indirect Kalman filter-based attitude estimation 26 3.1.2 Conventional attitude estimation algorithms 29 3.1.3 Adaptive attitude estimation using ellipsoidal methods 30 3.2 Experimental Results 36 3.2.1 Simulation 36 3.2.2 Rate table experiment 44 3.2.3 Handheld rotation experiment 46 3.2.4 Magnetic disturbance experiment 49 3.3 Summary 53 Chapter 4 Pedestrian Dead Reckoning in Multiple Poses of a Smartphone 54 4.1 System Overview 55 4.2 Machine Learning-based Pose Classification 56 4.2.1 Training dataset 57 4.2.2 Feature extraction and selection 58 4.2.3 Pose classification result using supervised learning in PDR 62 4.3 Fusion of the Integration and Parametric Approaches in PDR 65 4.3.1 System model 67 4.3.2 Measurement model 67 4.3.3 Mode selection 74 4.3.4 Observability analysis 76 4.4 Experimental Results 82 4.4.1 AHRS results 82 4.4.2 PCA results 84 4.4.3 IA-PA results 88 4.5 Summary 100 Chapter 5 Conclusions 103 5.1 Summary of the Contributions 103 5.2 Future Works 105 국문초록 125 Acknowledgements 127Docto

Context Determination for Adaptive Navigation using Multiple Sensors on a Smartphone

Navigation and positioning is inherently dependent on the context, which comprises both the operating environment and the behaviour of the host vehicle or user. No single technique is capable of providing reliable and accurate positioning in all contexts. In order to operate reliably across different contexts, a multi-sensor navigation system is required to detect its operating context and reconfigure the techniques accordingly. This paper aims to determine the behavioural and environmental contexts together, building the foundation of a context-adaptive navigation system. Both behavioural and environmental context detection results are presented. A hierarchical behavioural recognition scheme is proposed, within which the broad classes of human activities and vehicle motions are detected using measurements from accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and the barometer on a smartphone by decision trees (DT) and Relevance Vector Machines (RVM). The detection results are further improved by behavioural connectivity. Environmental contexts (e.g., indoor and outdoor) are detected from GNSS measurements using a hidden Markov model. The paper also investigates context association in order to further improve the reliability of context determination. Practical test results demonstrate improvements of environment detection in context determination

Fusion of non-visual and visual sensors for human tracking

Human tracking is an extensively researched yet still challenging area in the Computer Vision field, with a wide range of applications such as surveillance and healthcare. People may not be successfully tracked with merely the visual information in challenging cases such as long-term occlusion. Thus, we propose to combine information from other sensors with the surveillance cameras to persistently localize and track humans, which is becoming more promising with the pervasiveness of mobile devices such as cellphones, smart watches and smart glasses embedded with all kinds of sensors including accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, GPS, WiFi modules and so on. In this thesis, we firstly investigate the application of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) from mobile devices to human activity recognition and human tracking, we then develop novel persistent human tracking and indoor localization algorithms by the fusion of non-visual sensors and visual sensors, which not only overcomes the occlusion challenge in visual tracking, but also alleviates the calibration and drift problems in IMU tracking --Abstract, page iii

Applications of MEMS Gyroscope for Human Gait Analysis

After decades of development, quantitative instruments for human gait analysis have become an important tool for revealing underlying pathologies manifested by gait abnormalities. However, the gold standard instruments (e.g., optical motion capture systems) are commonly expensive and complex while needing expert operation and maintenance and thereby be limited to a small number of specialized gait laboratories. Therefore, in current clinical settings, gait analysis still mainly relies on visual observation and assessment. Due to recent developments in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, the cost and size of gyroscopes are decreasing, while the accuracy is being improved, which provides an effective way for qualifying gait features. This chapter aims to give a close examination of human gait patterns (normal and abnormal) using gyroscope-based wearable technology. Both healthy subjects and hemiparesis patients participated in the experiment, and experimental results show that foot-mounted gyroscopes could assess gait abnormalities in both temporal and spatial domains. Gait analysis systems constructed of wearable gyroscopes can be more easily used in both clinical and home environments than their gold standard counterparts, which have few requirements for operation, maintenance, and working environment, thereby suggesting a promising future for gait analysis

Integração de localização baseada em movimento na aplicação móvel EduPARK

More and more, mobile applications require precise localization solutions in a variety of environments. Although GPS is widely used as localization solution, it may present some accuracy problems in special conditions such as unfavorable weather or spaces with multiple obstructions such as public parks. For these scenarios, alternative solutions to GPS are of extreme relevance and are widely studied recently. This dissertation studies the case of EduPARK application, which is an augmented reality application that is implemented in the Infante D. Pedro park in Aveiro. Due to the poor accuracy of GPS in this park, the implementation of positioning and marker-less augmented reality functionalities presents difficulties. Existing relevant systems are analyzed, and an architecture based on pedestrian dead reckoning is proposed. The corresponding implementation is presented, which consists of a positioning solution using the sensors available in the smartphones, a step detection algorithm, a distance traveled estimator, an orientation estimator and a position estimator. For the validation of this solution, functionalities were implemented in the EduPARK application for testing purposes and usability tests performed. The results obtained show that the proposed solution can be an alternative to provide accurate positioning within the Infante D. Pedro park, thus enabling the implementation of functionalities of geocaching and marker-less augmented reality.Cada vez mais, as aplicações móveis requerem soluções de localização precisa nos mais variados ambientes. Apesar de o GPS ser amplamente usado como solução para localização, pode apresentar alguns problemas de precisão em condições especiais, como mau tempo, ou espaços com várias obstruções, como parques públicos. Para estes casos, soluções alternativas ao GPS são de extrema relevância e veem sendo desenvolvidas. A presente dissertação estuda o caso do projeto EduPARK, que é uma aplicação móvel de realidade aumentada para o parque Infante D. Pedro em Aveiro. Devido à fraca precisão do GPS nesse parque, a implementação de funcionalidades baseadas no posionamento e de realidade aumentada sem marcadores apresenta dificuldades. São analisados sistemas relevantes existentes e é proposta uma arquitetura baseada em localização de pedestres. Em seguida é apresentada a correspondente implementação, que consiste numa solução de posicionamento usando os sensores disponiveis nos smartphones, um algoritmo de deteção de passos, um estimador de distância percorrida, um estimador de orientação e um estimador de posicionamento. Para a validação desta solução, foram implementadas funcionalidades na aplicação EduPARK para fins de teste, e realizados testes com utilizadores e testes de usabilidade. Os resultados obtidos demostram que a solução proposta pode ser uma alternativa para a localização no interior do parque Infante D. Pedro, viabilizando desta forma a implementação de funcionalidades baseadas no posicionamento e de realidade aumenta sem marcadores.EduPARK é um projeto financiado por Fundos FEDER através do Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização - COMPETE 2020 e por Fundos Nacionais através da FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia no âmbito do projeto POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016542.Mestrado em Engenharia Informátic

Improving Environment Detection by Behaviour Association for Context Adaptive Navigation

Navigation and positioning systems depend on both the operating environment and the behavior of the host vehicle or user. The environment determines the type and quality of radio signals available for positioning, and the behavior can contribute additional information to the navigation solution. In order to operate across different contexts, a context‐adaptive navigation solution is required to detect the operating contexts and adopt different positioning techniques accordingly. This paper focuses on determining both environments and behaviors from smartphone sensors, serving for a context‐adaptive navigation system. Behavioral contexts cover both human activities and vehicle motions. The performance of behavior recognition in this paper is improved by feature selection and a connectivity‐dependent filter. Environmental contexts are detected from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements. They are detected by using a probabilistic support vector machine, followed by a hidden Markov model for time‐domain filtering. The paper further investigates how behaviors can assist within the processes of environment detection. Finally, the proposed context‐determination algorithms are tested in a series of multicontext scenarios, showing that the proposed context association mechanism can effectively improve the accuracy of environment detection to more than 95% for pedestrian and more than 90% for vehicle

Map matching by using inertial sensors: literature review

This literature review aims to clarify what is known about map matching by using inertial sensors and what are the requirements for map matching, inertial sensors, placement and possible complementary position technology. The target is to develop a wearable location system that can position itself within a complex construction environment automatically with the aid of an accurate building model. The wearable location system should work on a tablet computer which is running an augmented reality (AR) solution and is capable of track and visualize 3D-CAD models in real environment. The wearable location system is needed to support the system in initialization of the accurate camera pose calculation and automatically finding the right location in the 3D-CAD model. One type of sensor which does seem applicable to people tracking is inertial measurement unit (IMU). The IMU sensors in aerospace applications, based on laser based gyroscopes, are big but provide a very accurate position estimation with a limited drift. Small and light units such as those based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) sensors are becoming very popular, but they have a significant bias and therefore suffer from large drifts and require method for calibration like map matching. The system requires very little fixed infrastructure, the monetary cost is proportional to the number of users, rather than to the coverage area as is the case for traditional absolute indoor location systems.Siirretty Doriast