Algorithms for Building High-Accurate Optical Tracking Systems

Die vorliegende Arbeit präsentiert eine Untersuchung von Einflussfaktoren auf die Genauigkeit eines optischen Trackingsystems zur hoch präzisen Koordinatenmessung, wie sie beispielsweise im Bereich der Computer-unterstützten Chirurgie benötigt wird. Zu den Haupteinflussfaktoren gehören die Modellierung der Aufnahmegeometrie, die verwendeten Bildverarbeitungsalgorithmen zur Markensegmentierung, welche sowohl während der Systemkalibrierung als auch während des eigentlichen Messvorgangs verwendet werden, und nicht zuletzt thermische Einflüsse.Wahrend die Modellierung der Kamerageometrie ein gut erforschter Gegenstand sowohl im Bereich der Photogrammetrie als auch des Maschinellen Sehens darstellt, existieren fur den Vergleich von verschiedenen Markentypen und deren Segmentierungsalgorithmen in bezug auf die Messgenauigkeit noch keine umfassenden Ergebnisse. Einen weiteren Bereich, der nahezu nicht untersucht ist, bilden thermische Einflüsse auf die zugrundeliegende Aufnahmegeometrie. Die vorliegende Arbeit legt ihren Schwerpunkt auf diese zwei Bereiche. Zum einen werden verschiedene Algorithmen zur Segmentierung von Messmarken vorgestellt und miteinander verglichen. Den zweiten großen Schwerpunkt bildet eine Analyse von thermischen Einflussen auf Kameras. Es wird ein Verfahren entwickelt, welches den Einfluss von Temperaturänderungen modelliert und so Messfehler kompensieren kann. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit finden Anwendung in der Entwicklung eines optischen Trackingsystems fur den Einsatz in der orthopädischen Chirurgie

Positioning System for a Hand-Held Mine Detector

Humanitarian mine clearance aims at reducing the nuisance of regions infected by explosive devices. These devices need to be detected with a high rate of success while keeping a low false alarm rate to reduce time losses and personnel’s fatigue. This chapter describes a positioning system developed to track hand-held detector movements in the context of close-range mine detection. With such a system, the signals captured by the detector over time can be used to build two- or three-dimensional data. The objects possibly present in the data can then be visually appreciated by an operator to detect specific features such as shape or size or known signatures. The positioning system developed in the framework of the HOPE European project requires only a camera and an extra bar. It adds few constraints to current mine clearance procedures and requires limited additional hardware. The software developed for calibration and continuous acquisition of the position is described, and evaluation results are presented

Extrinisic Calibration of a Camera-Arm System Through Rotation Identification

Determining extrinsic calibration parameters is a necessity in any robotic system composed of actuators and cameras. Once a system is outside the lab environment, parameters must be determined without relying on outside artifacts such as calibration targets. We propose a method that relies on structured motion of an observed arm to recover extrinsic calibration parameters. Our method combines known arm kinematics with observations of conics in the image plane to calculate maximum-likelihood estimates for calibration extrinsics. This method is validated in simulation and tested against a real-world model, yielding results consistent with ruler-based estimates. Our method shows promise for estimating the pose of a camera relative to an articulated arm's end effector without requiring tedious measurements or external artifacts. Index Terms: robotics, hand-eye problem, self-calibration, structure from motio

Inspection with Robotic Microscopic Imaging

Future Mars rover missions will require more advanced onboard autonomy for increased scientific productivity and reduced mission operations cost. One such form of autonomy can be achieved by targeting precise science measurements to be made in a single command uplink cycle. In this paper we present an overview of our solution to the subproblems of navigating a rover into place for microscopic imaging, mapping an instrument target point selected by an operator using far away science camera images to close up hazard camera images, verifying the safety of placing a contact instrument on a sample or finding nearby safe points, and analyzing the data that comes back from the rover. The system developed includes portions used in the Multiple Target Single Cycle Instrument Placement demonstration at NASA Ames in October 2004, and portions of the MI Toolkit delivered to the Athena Microscopic Imager Instrument Team for the MER mission still operating on Mars today. Some of the component technologies are also under consideration for MSL mission infusion

Vision-based localization methods under GPS-denied conditions

This paper reviews vision-based localization methods in GPS-denied environments and classifies the mainstream methods into Relative Vision Localization (RVL) and Absolute Vision Localization (AVL). For RVL, we discuss the broad application of optical flow in feature extraction-based Visual Odometry (VO) solutions and introduce advanced optical flow estimation methods. For AVL, we review recent advances in Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) techniques, from optimization-based methods to Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based methods. We also introduce the application of offline map registration and lane vision detection schemes to achieve Absolute Visual Localization. This paper compares the performance and applications of mainstream methods for visual localization and provides suggestions for future studies.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figure