Visual servoing of mobile robots using non-central catadioptric cameras

This paper presents novel contributions on image-based control of a mobile robot using a general catadioptric camera model. A catadioptric camera is usually made up by a combination of a conventional camera and a curved mirror resulting in an omnidirectional sensor capable of providing 360° panoramic views of a scene. Modeling such cameras has been the subject of significant research interest in the computer vision community leading to a deeper understanding of the image properties and also to different models for different types of configurations. Visual servoing applications using catadioptric cameras have essentially been using central cameras and the corresponding unified projection model. So far only in a few cases more general models have been used. In this paper we address the problem of visual servoing using the so-called radial model. The radial model can be applied to many camera configurations and in particular to non-central catadioptric systems with mirrors that are symmetric around an axis coinciding with the optical axis. In this case, we show that the radial model can be used with a non-central catadioptric camera to allow effective image-based visual servoing (IBVS) of a mobile robot. Using this model, which is valid for a large set of catadioptric cameras (central or non-central), new visual features are proposed to control the degrees of freedom of a mobile robot moving on a plane. In addition to several simulation results, a set of experiments was carried out on Robot Operating System (ROS)-based platform which validates the applicability, effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method for image-based control of a non-holonomic robot

Vision-based Navigation and Mapping Using Non-central Catadioptric Omnidirectional Camera

Omnidirectional catadioptric cameras find their use in navigation and mapping, owing to their wide field of view. Having a wider field of view, or rather a potential 360 degree field of view, allows the user to see and move more freely in the navigation space. A catadioptric camera system is a low cost system which consists of a mirror and a camera. A calibration method was developed in order to obtain the relative position and orientation between the two components so that they can be considered as one monolithic system. The position of the system was determined, for an environment using the conditions obtained from the reflective properties of the mirror. Object control points were set up and experiments were performed at different sites to test the mathematical models and the achieved location and mapping accuracy of the system. The obtained positions were then used to map the environment

Design and calibration of a specialized polydioptric camera rig

The development of advanced computational machines does not necessarily provide solutions to all the scientific problems in the research. It has been observed in the nature that all creatures have evolved highly exclusive sensory organs depending on their habitat and the form of availability of the resources they utilize for their survival. In this project, a novel omnidirectional camera rig is proposed that is exclusively designed to operate for highly specified operations and tasks in the field of mobile robots. Navigation problems on uneven terrains and detection of the moving objects while the robot is itself in motion are the core problems that omnidirectional systems tackle. The proposed omnidirectional system is a compact and a rigid vision system with dioptric cameras that provide a 360° field-of-view in horizontal and vertical, with no blind spot in their site plus a high resolution stereo camera is mounted to monitor anterior field-of-view for precise results with depth information of the scene. Structure from motion algorithm is adapted and implemented to prove the validity of the design of the proposed camera rig and a toolbox is developed to calibrate similar systems

A 3D Omnidirectional Sensor For Mobile Robot Applications

International audienc

Omnidirectional Vision Based Topological Navigation

Goedemé T., Van Gool L., ''Omnidirectional vision based topological navigation'', Mobile robots navigation, pp. 172-196, Barrera Alejandra, ed., March 2010, InTech.status: publishe

Proyecciones cónicas de rectas en sistemas catadióptricos para percepción visual en entornos construidos por el hombre

Los sistemas de visión omnidireccional son dispositivos que permiten la adquisición de imágenes con un campo de vista de 360º en un eje y superior 180º en el otro. La necesidad de integrar estas cámaras en sistemas de visión por computador ha impulsado la investigación en este campo profundizando en los modelos matemáticos y la base teórica necesaria que permite la implementación de aplicaciones. Existen diversas tecnologías para obtener imágenes omnidireccionales. Los sistemas catadióptricos son aquellos que consiguen aumentar el campo de vista utilizando espejos. Entre estos, encontramos los sistemas hiper-catadióptricos que son aquellos que utilizan una cámara perspectiva y un espejo hiperbólico. La geometría hiperbólica del espejo garantiza que el sistema sea central. En estos sistemas adquieren una especial relevancia las rectas del espacio, en la medida en que, rectas largas son completamente visibles en única imagen. La recta es una forma geométrica abundante en entornos construidos por el hombre que además acostumbra a ordenarse según direcciones dominantes. Salvo construcciones singulares, la fuerza de la gravedad fija una dirección vertical que puede utilizarse como referencia en el cálculo de la orientación del sistema. Sin embargo el uso de rectas en sistemas catadióptricos implica la dificultad añadida de trabajar con un modelo proyectivo no lineal en el que las rectas 3d son proyectadas en cónicas. Este TFM recoge el trabajo que se presenta en el artículo "Significant Conics on Catadioptric Images for 3D Orientation and Image Rectification" que pretendemos enviar a "Robotics and Autonomous Systems". En él se presenta un método para calcular la orientación de un sistema hiper-catadióptrico utilizando las cónicas que son proyecciones de rectas 3D. El método calcula la orientación respecto del sistema de referencia absoluto definido por el conjunto de puntos de fuga en un entorno en que existan direcciones dominantes

Mirrored Light Field Video Camera Adapter

This paper proposes the design of a custom mirror-based light field camera adapter that is cheap, simple in construction, and accessible. Mirrors of different shape and orientation reflect the scene into an upwards-facing camera to create an array of virtual cameras with overlapping field of view at specified depths, and deliver video frame rate light fields. We describe the design, construction, decoding and calibration processes of our mirror-based light field camera adapter in preparation for an open-source release to benefit the robotic vision community.Comment: tech report, v0.5, 15 pages, 6 figure