7,658 research outputs found
Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Age
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent
construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the
state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing
progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications,
and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey
the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto
standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad
set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric
and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees,
active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously
serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By
looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open
challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific
investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that
often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and
Is SLAM solved
Application of computer vision for roller operation management
Compaction is the last and possibly the most important phase in construction of asphalt concrete (AC) pavements. Compaction densifies the loose (AC) mat, producing a stable surface with low permeability. The process strongly affects the AC performance properties. Too much compaction may cause aggregate degradation and low air void content facilitating bleeding and rutting. On the other hand too little compaction may result in higher air void content facilitating oxidation and water permeability issues, rutting due to further densification by traffic and reduced fatigue life. Therefore, compaction is a critical issue in AC pavement construction.;The common practice for compacting a mat is to establish a roller pattern that determines the number of passes and coverages needed to achieve the desired density. Once the pattern is established, the roller\u27s operator must maintain the roller pattern uniformly over the entire mat.;Despite the importance of uniform compaction to achieve the expected durability and performance of AC pavements, having the roller operator as the only mean to manage the operation can involve human errors.;With the advancement of technology in recent years, the concept of intelligent compaction (IC) was developed to assist the roller operators and improve the construction quality. Commercial IC packages for construction rollers are available from different manufacturers. They can provide precise mapping of a roller\u27s location and provide the roller operator with feedback during the compaction process.;Although, the IC packages are able to track the roller passes with impressive results, there are also major hindrances. The high cost of acquisition and potential negative impact on productivity has inhibited implementation of IC.;This study applied computer vision technology to build a versatile and affordable system to count and map roller passes. An infrared camera is mounted on top of the roller to capture the operator view. Then, in a near real-time process, image features were extracted and tracked to estimate the incremental rotation and translation of the roller. Image featured are categorized into near and distant features based on the user defined horizon. The optical flow is estimated for near features located in the region below the horizon. The change in roller\u27s heading is constantly estimated from the distant features located in the sky region. Using the roller\u27s rotation angle, the incremental translation between two frames will be calculated from the optical flow. The roller\u27s incremental rotation and translation will put together to develop a tracking map.;During system development, it was noted that in environments with thermal uniformity, the background of the IR images exhibit less featured as compared to images captured with optical cameras which are insensitive to temperature. This issue is more significant overnight, since nature elements are not able to reflect the heat energy from sun. Therefore to improve roller\u27s heading estimation where less features are available in the sky region a unique methodology that allows heading detection based on the asphalt mat edges was developed for this research. The heading measurements based on the slope of the asphalt hot edges will be added to the pool of the headings measured from sky region. The median of all heading measurements will be used as the incremental roller\u27s rotation for the tracking analysis.;The record of tracking data is used for QC/QA purposes and verifying the proper implementation of the roller pattern throughout a job constructed under the roller pass specifications.;The system developed during this research was successful in mapping roller location for few projects tested. However the system should be independently validated
Automatic Dense 3D Scene Mapping from Non-overlapping Passive Visual Sensors for Future Autonomous Systems
The ever increasing demand for higher levels of autonomy for robots and vehicles means there is an ever greater need for such systems to be aware of their surroundings. Whilst solutions already exist for creating 3D scene maps, many are based on active scanning devices such as laser scanners and depth cameras that are either expensive, unwieldy, or do not function well under certain environmental conditions. As a result passive cameras are a favoured sensor due their low cost, small size, and ability to work in a range of lighting conditions.
In this work we address some of the remaining research challenges within the problem of 3D mapping around a moving platform. We utilise prior work in dense stereo imaging, Stereo Visual Odometry (SVO) and extend Structure from Motion (SfM) to create a pipeline optimised for on vehicle sensing.
Using forward facing stereo cameras, we use state of the art SVO and dense stereo techniques to map the scene in front of the vehicle. With significant amounts of prior research in dense stereo, we addressed the issue of selecting an appropriate method by creating a novel evaluation technique. Visual 3D mapping of dynamic scenes from a moving platform result in duplicated scene objects. We extend the prior work on mapping by introducing a generalized dynamic object removal process. Unlike other approaches that rely on computationally expensive segmentation or detection, our method utilises existing data from the mapping stage and the findings from our dense stereo evaluation. We introduce a new SfM approach that exploits our platform motion to create a novel dense mapping process that exceeds the 3D data generation rate of state of the art alternatives. Finally, we combine dense stereo, SVO, and our SfM approach to automatically align point clouds from non-overlapping views to create a rotational and scale consistent global 3D model
Adaptive Multi-sensor Perception for Driving Automation in Outdoor Contexts
In this research, adaptive perception for driving automation is discussed so as to enable a vehicle to automatically detect driveable areas and obstacles in the scene. It is especially designed for outdoor contexts where conventional perception systems that rely on a priori knowledge of the terrain's geometric properties, appearance properties, or both, is prone to fail, due to the variability in the terrain properties and environmental conditions. In contrast, the proposed framework uses a self-learning approach to build a model of the ground class that is continuously adjusted online to reflect the latest ground appearance. The system also features high flexibility, as it can work using a single sensor modality or a multi-sensor combination. In the context of this research, different embodiments have been demonstrated using range data coming from either a radar or a stereo camera, and adopting self-supervised strategies where monocular vision is automatically trained by radar or stereo vision. A comprehensive set of experimental results, obtained with different ground vehicles operating in the field, are presented to validate and assess the performance of the system
Radar-only ego-motion estimation in difficult settings via graph matching
Radar detects stable, long-range objects under variable weather and lighting
conditions, making it a reliable and versatile sensor well suited for
ego-motion estimation. In this work, we propose a radar-only odometry pipeline
that is highly robust to radar artifacts (e.g., speckle noise and false
positives) and requires only one input parameter. We demonstrate its ability to
adapt across diverse settings, from urban UK to off-road Iceland, achieving a
scan matching accuracy of approximately 5.20 cm and 0.0929 deg when using GPS
as ground truth (compared to visual odometry's 5.77 cm and 0.1032 deg). We
present algorithms for keypoint extraction and data association, framing the
latter as a graph matching optimization problem, and provide an in-depth system
analysis.Comment: 6 content pages, 1 page of references, 5 figures, 4 tables, 2019 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA
Real-time object detection using monocular vision for low-cost automotive sensing systems
This work addresses the problem of real-time object detection in automotive environments
using monocular vision. The focus is on real-time feature detection,
tracking, depth estimation using monocular vision and finally, object detection by
fusing visual saliency and depth information.
Firstly, a novel feature detection approach is proposed for extracting stable and
dense features even in images with very low signal-to-noise ratio. This methodology
is based on image gradients, which are redefined to take account of noise as
part of their mathematical model. Each gradient is based on a vector connecting a
negative to a positive intensity centroid, where both centroids are symmetric about
the centre of the area for which the gradient is calculated. Multiple gradient vectors
define a feature with its strength being proportional to the underlying gradient
vector magnitude. The evaluation of the Dense Gradient Features (DeGraF) shows
superior performance over other contemporary detectors in terms of keypoint density,
tracking accuracy, illumination invariance, rotation invariance, noise resistance
and detection time.
The DeGraF features form the basis for two new approaches that perform dense
3D reconstruction from a single vehicle-mounted camera. The first approach tracks
DeGraF features in real-time while performing image stabilisation with minimal
computational cost. This means that despite camera vibration the algorithm can
accurately predict the real-world coordinates of each image pixel in real-time by comparing
each motion-vector to the ego-motion vector of the vehicle. The performance
of this approach has been compared to different 3D reconstruction methods in order
to determine their accuracy, depth-map density, noise-resistance and computational
complexity. The second approach proposes the use of local frequency analysis of
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gradient features for estimating relative depth. This novel method is based on the
fact that DeGraF gradients can accurately measure local image variance with subpixel
accuracy. It is shown that the local frequency by which the centroid oscillates
around the gradient window centre is proportional to the depth of each gradient
centroid in the real world. The lower computational complexity of this methodology
comes at the expense of depth map accuracy as the camera velocity increases, but
it is at least five times faster than the other evaluated approaches.
This work also proposes a novel technique for deriving visual saliency maps by
using Division of Gaussians (DIVoG). In this context, saliency maps express the
difference of each image pixel is to its surrounding pixels across multiple pyramid
levels. This approach is shown to be both fast and accurate when evaluated against
other state-of-the-art approaches. Subsequently, the saliency information is combined
with depth information to identify salient regions close to the host vehicle.
The fused map allows faster detection of high-risk areas where obstacles are likely
to exist. As a result, existing object detection algorithms, such as the Histogram of
Oriented Gradients (HOG) can execute at least five times faster.
In conclusion, through a step-wise approach computationally-expensive algorithms
have been optimised or replaced by novel methodologies to produce a fast object
detection system that is aligned to the requirements of the automotive domain
Street View Motion-from-Structure-from-Motion
We describe a structure-from-motion framework that handles “generalized ” cameras, such as moving rolling-shutter cameras, and works at an unprecedented scale— billions of images covering millions of linear kilometers of roads—by exploiting a good relative pose prior along vehicle paths. We exhibit a planet-scale, appearance-augmented point cloud constructed with our framework and demonstrate its practical use in correcting the pose of a street-level image collection. 1
A Comprehensive Survey of Deep Learning in Remote Sensing: Theories, Tools and Challenges for the Community
In recent years, deep learning (DL), a re-branding of neural networks (NNs),
has risen to the top in numerous areas, namely computer vision (CV), speech
recognition, natural language processing, etc. Whereas remote sensing (RS)
possesses a number of unique challenges, primarily related to sensors and
applications, inevitably RS draws from many of the same theories as CV; e.g.,
statistics, fusion, and machine learning, to name a few. This means that the RS
community should be aware of, if not at the leading edge of, of advancements
like DL. Herein, we provide the most comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art
RS DL research. We also review recent new developments in the DL field that can
be used in DL for RS. Namely, we focus on theories, tools and challenges for
the RS community. Specifically, we focus on unsolved challenges and
opportunities as it relates to (i) inadequate data sets, (ii)
human-understandable solutions for modelling physical phenomena, (iii) Big
Data, (iv) non-traditional heterogeneous data sources, (v) DL architectures and
learning algorithms for spectral, spatial and temporal data, (vi) transfer
learning, (vii) an improved theoretical understanding of DL systems, (viii)
high barriers to entry, and (ix) training and optimizing the DL.Comment: 64 pages, 411 references. To appear in Journal of Applied Remote
Sensin
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