1,450 research outputs found
Sparse octree algorithms for scalable dense volumetric tracking and mapping
This thesis is concerned with the problem of Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM), the task of localising an agent within an unknown environment and at the same time building a representation of it. In particular, we tackle the fundamental scalability limitations of dense volumetric SLAM systems. We do so by proposing a highly efficient hierarchical data-structure based on octrees together with a set of algorithms to support the most compute-intensive operations in typical volumetric reconstruction pipelines.
We employ our hierarchical representation in a novel dense pipeline based on occupancy probabilities. Crucially, the complete space representation encoded by the octree enables to demonstrate a fully integrated system in which tracking, mapping and occupancy queries can be performed seamlessly on a single coherent representation. While achieving accuracy either at par or better than the current state-of-the-art, we demonstrate run-time performance of at least an order of magnitude better than currently available hierarchical data-structures.
Finally, we introduce a novel multi-scale reconstruction system that exploits our octree hierarchy. By adaptively selecting the appropriate scale to match the effective sensor resolution in both integration and rendering, we demonstrate better reconstruction results and tracking accuracy compared to single-resolution grids. Furthermore, we achieve much higher computational performance by propagating information up and down the tree in a lazy fashion, which allow us to reduce the computational load when updating distant surfaces.
We have released our software as an open-source library, named supereight, which is freely available for the benefit of the wider community. One of the main advantages of our library is its flexibility. By carefully providing a set of algorithmic abstractions, supereight enables SLAM practitioners to freely experiment with different map representations with no intervention on the back-end library code and crucially, preserving performance. Our work has been adopted by robotics researchers in both academia and industry.Open Acces
On-the-fly adaptivity for nonlinear twoscale simulations using artificial neural networks and reduced order modeling
A multi-fidelity surrogate model for highly nonlinear multiscale problems is
proposed. It is based on the introduction of two different surrogate models and
an adaptive on-the-fly switching. The two concurrent surrogates are built
incrementally starting from a moderate set of evaluations of the full order
model. Therefore, a reduced order model (ROM) is generated. Using a hybrid
ROM-preconditioned FE solver, additional effective stress-strain data is
simulated while the number of samples is kept to a moderate level by using a
dedicated and physics-guided sampling technique. Machine learning (ML) is
subsequently used to build the second surrogate by means of artificial neural
networks (ANN). Different ANN architectures are explored and the features used
as inputs of the ANN are fine tuned in order to improve the overall quality of
the ML model. Additional ANN surrogates for the stress errors are generated.
Therefore, conservative design guidelines for error surrogates are presented by
adapting the loss functions of the ANN training in pure regression or pure
classification settings. The error surrogates can be used as quality indicators
in order to adaptively select the appropriate -- i.e. efficient yet accurate --
surrogate. Two strategies for the on-the-fly switching are investigated and a
practicable and robust algorithm is proposed that eliminates relevant technical
difficulties attributed to model switching. The provided algorithms and ANN
design guidelines can easily be adopted for different problem settings and,
thereby, they enable generalization of the used machine learning techniques for
a wide range of applications. The resulting hybrid surrogate is employed in
challenging multilevel FE simulations for a three-phase composite with
pseudo-plastic micro-constituents. Numerical examples highlight the performance
of the proposed approach
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