5,078 research outputs found
Probabilistic Surfel Fusion for Dense LiDAR Mapping
With the recent development of high-end LiDARs, more and more systems are
able to continuously map the environment while moving and producing spatially
redundant information. However, none of the previous approaches were able to
effectively exploit this redundancy in a dense LiDAR mapping problem. In this
paper, we present a new approach for dense LiDAR mapping using probabilistic
surfel fusion. The proposed system is capable of reconstructing a high-quality
dense surface element (surfel) map from spatially redundant multiple views.
This is achieved by a proposed probabilistic surfel fusion along with a
geometry considered data association. The proposed surfel data association
method considers surface resolution as well as high measurement uncertainty
along its beam direction which enables the mapping system to be able to control
surface resolution without introducing spatial digitization. The proposed
fusion method successfully suppresses the map noise level by considering
measurement noise caused by laser beam incident angle and depth distance in a
Bayesian filtering framework. Experimental results with simulated and real data
for the dense surfel mapping prove the ability of the proposed method to
accurately find the canonical form of the environment without further
post-processing.Comment: Accepted in Multiview Relationships in 3D Data 2017 (IEEE
International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops
GASP : Geometric Association with Surface Patches
A fundamental challenge to sensory processing tasks in perception and
robotics is the problem of obtaining data associations across views. We present
a robust solution for ascertaining potentially dense surface patch (superpixel)
associations, requiring just range information. Our approach involves
decomposition of a view into regularized surface patches. We represent them as
sequences expressing geometry invariantly over their superpixel neighborhoods,
as uniquely consistent partial orderings. We match these representations
through an optimal sequence comparison metric based on the Damerau-Levenshtein
distance - enabling robust association with quadratic complexity (in contrast
to hitherto employed joint matching formulations which are NP-complete). The
approach is able to perform under wide baselines, heavy rotations, partial
overlaps, significant occlusions and sensor noise.
The technique does not require any priors -- motion or otherwise, and does
not make restrictive assumptions on scene structure and sensor movement. It
does not require appearance -- is hence more widely applicable than appearance
reliant methods, and invulnerable to related ambiguities such as textureless or
aliased content. We present promising qualitative and quantitative results
under diverse settings, along with comparatives with popular approaches based
on range as well as RGB-D data.Comment: International Conference on 3D Vision, 201
Active SLAM for autonomous underwater exploration
Exploration of a complex underwater environment without an a priori map is beyond the state of the art for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Despite several efforts regarding simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and view planning, there is no exploration framework, tailored to underwater vehicles, that faces exploration combining mapping, active localization, and view planning in a unified way. We propose an exploration framework, based on an active SLAM strategy, that combines three main elements: a view planner, an iterative closest point algorithm (ICP)-based pose-graph SLAM algorithm, and an action selection mechanism that makes use of the joint map and state entropy reduction. To demonstrate the benefits of the active SLAM strategy, several tests were conducted with the Girona 500 AUV, both in simulation and in the real world. The article shows how the proposed framework makes it possible to plan exploratory trajectories that keep the vehicle’s uncertainty bounded; thus, creating more consistent maps.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
AgriColMap: Aerial-Ground Collaborative 3D Mapping for Precision Farming
The combination of aerial survey capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
with targeted intervention abilities of agricultural Unmanned Ground Vehicles
can significantly improve the effectiveness of robotic systems applied to
precision agriculture. In this context, building and updating a common map of
the field is an essential but challenging task. The maps built using robots of
different types show differences in size, resolution and scale, the associated
geolocation data may be inaccurate and biased, while the repetitiveness of both
visual appearance and geometric structures found within agricultural contexts
render classical map merging techniques ineffective. In this paper we propose
AgriColMap, a novel map registration pipeline that leverages a grid-based
multimodal environment representation which includes a vegetation index map and
a Digital Surface Model. We cast the data association problem between maps
built from UAVs and UGVs as a multimodal, large displacement dense optical flow
estimation. The dominant, coherent flows, selected using a voting scheme, are
used as point-to-point correspondences to infer a preliminary non-rigid
alignment between the maps. A final refinement is then performed, by exploiting
only meaningful parts of the registered maps. We evaluate our system using real
world data for 3 fields with different crop species. The results show that our
method outperforms several state of the art map registration and matching
techniques by a large margin, and has a higher tolerance to large initial
misalignments. We release an implementation of the proposed approach along with
the acquired datasets with this paper.Comment: Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 201
Navigace mobilních robotů v neznámém prostředí s využitím měření vzdáleností
The ability of a robot to navigate itself in the environment is a crucial step towards its autonomy. Navigation as a subtask of the development of autonomous robots is the subject of this thesis, focusing on the development of a method for simultaneous localization an mapping (SLAM) of mobile robots in six degrees of freedom (DOF). As a part of this research, a platform for 3D range data acquisition based on a continuously inclined laser rangefinder was developed. This platform is presented, evaluating the measurements and also presenting the robotic equipment on which the platform can be fitted. The localization and mapping task is equal to the registration of multiple 3D images into a common frame of reference. For this purpose, a method based on the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm was developed. First, the originally implemented SLAM method is presented, focusing on the time-wise performance and the registration quality issues introduced by the implemented algorithms. In order to accelerate and improve the quality of the time-demanding 6DOF image registration, an extended method was developed. The major extension is the introduction of a factorized registration, extracting 2D representations of vertical objects called leveled maps from the 3D point sets, ensuring these representations are 3DOF invariant. The extracted representations are registered in 3DOF using ICP algorithm, allowing pre-alignment of the 3D data for the subsequent robust 6DOF ICP based registration. The extended method is presented, showing all important modifications to the original method. The developed registration method was evaluated using real 3D data acquired in different indoor environments, examining the benefits of the factorization and other extensions as well as the performance of the original ICP based method. The factorization gives promising results compared to a single phase 6DOF registration in vertically structured environments. Also, the disadvantages of the method are discussed, proposing possible solutions. Finally, the future prospects of the research are presented.Schopnost lokalizace a navigace je podmínkou autonomního provozu mobilních robotů. Předmětem této disertační práce jsou navigační metody se zaměřením na metodu pro simultánní lokalizaci a mapování (SLAM) mobilních robotů v šesti stupních volnosti (6DOF). Nedílnou součástí tohoto výzkumu byl vývoj platformy pro sběr 3D vzdálenostních dat s využitím kontinuálně naklápěného laserového řádkového scanneru. Tato platforma byla vyvinuta jako samostatný modul, aby mohla být umístěna na různé šasi mobilních robotů. Úkol lokalizace a mapování je ekvivalentní registraci více 3D obrazů do společného souřadného systému. Pro tyto účely byla vyvinuta metoda založená na algoritmu Iterative Closest Point Algorithm (ICP). Původně implementovaná verze navigační metody využívá ICP s akcelerací pomocí kd-stromů přičemž jsou zhodnoceny její kvalitativní a výkonnostní aspekty. Na základě této analýzy byly vyvinuty rozšíření původní metody založené na ICP. Jednou z hlavních modifikací je faktorizace registračního procesu, kdy tato faktorizace je založena na redukci dat: vytvoření 2D „leveled“ map (ve smyslu jednoúrovňových map) ze 3D vzdálenostních obrazů. Pro tuto redukci je technologicky i algoritmicky zajištěna invariantnost těchto map vůči třem stupňům volnosti. Tyto redukované mapy jsou registrovány pomocí ICP ve zbylých třech stupních volnosti, přičemž získaná transformace je aplikována na 3D data za účelem před-registrace 3D obrazů. Následně je provedena robustní 6DOF registrace. Rozšířená metoda je v disertační práci v popsána spolu se všemi podstatnými modifikacemi. Vyvinutá metoda byla otestována a zhodnocena s využitím skutečných 3D vzdálenostních dat naměřených v různých vnitřních prostředích. Jsou zhodnoceny přínosy faktorizace a jiných modifikací ve srovnání s původní jednofázovou 6DOF registrací, také jsou zmíněny nevýhody implementované metody a navrženy způsoby jejich řešení. Nakonec následuje návrh budoucího výzkumu a diskuse o možnostech dalšího rozvoje.
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