Proceedings of the 2009 Joint Workshop of Fraunhofer IOSB and Institute for Anthropomatics, Vision and Fusion Laboratory

The joint workshop of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB, Karlsruhe, and the Vision and Fusion Laboratory (Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)), is organized annually since 2005 with the aim to report on the latest research and development findings of the doctoral students of both institutions. This book provides a collection of 16 technical reports on the research results presented on the 2009 workshop

Improving Generalization of Synthetically Trained Sonar Image Descriptors for Underwater Place Recognition

Autonomous navigation in underwater environments presents challenges due to factors such as light absorption and water turbidity, limiting the effectiveness of optical sensors. Sonar systems are commonly used for perception in underwater operations as they are unaffected by these limitations. Traditional computer vision algorithms are less effective when applied to sonar-generated acoustic images, while convolutional neural networks (CNNs) typically require large amounts of labeled training data that are often unavailable or difficult to acquire. To this end, we propose a novel compact deep sonar descriptor pipeline that can generalize to real scenarios while being trained exclusively on synthetic data. Our architecture is based on a ResNet18 back-end and a properly parameterized random Gaussian projection layer, whereas input sonar data is enhanced with standard ad-hoc normalization/prefiltering techniques. A customized synthetic data generation procedure is also presented. The proposed method has been evaluated extensively using both synthetic and publicly available real data, demonstrating its effectiveness compared to state-of-the-art methods.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication at the 14th International Conference on Computer Vision Systems (ICVS 2023

CES-515 Towards Localization and Mapping of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: A Survey

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been used for a huge number of tasks ranging from commercial, military and research areas etc, while the fundamental function of a successful AUV is its localization and mapping ability. This report aims to review the relevant elements of localization and mapping for AUVs. First, a brief introduction of the concept and the historical development of AUVs is given; then a relatively detailed description of the sensor system used for AUV navigation is provided. As the main part of the report, a comprehensive investigation of the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for AUVs are conducted, including its application examples. Finally a brief conclusion is summarized

Probablistic approaches for intelligent AUV localisation

This thesis studies the problem of intelligent localisation for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). After an introduction about robot localisation and specific issues in the underwater domain, the thesis will focus on passive techniques for AUV localisation, highlighting experimental results and comparison among different techniques. Then, it will develop active techniques, which require intelligent decisions about the steps to undertake in order for the AUV to localise itself. The undertaken methodology consisted in three stages: theoretical analysis of the problem, tests with a simulation environment, integration in the robot architecture and field trials. The conclusions highlight applications and scenarios where the developed techniques have been successfully used or can be potentially used to enhance the results given by current techniques. The main contribution of this thesis is in the proposal of an active localisation module, which is able to determine the best set of action to be executed, in order to maximise the localisation results, in terms of time and efficiency

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Technologies

Il problema dello SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) consiste nel mappare un ambiente sconosciuto per mezzo di un dispositivo che si muove al suo interno, mentre si effettua la localizzazione di quest'ultimo. All'interno di questa tesi viene analizzato il problema dello SLAM e le differenze che lo contraddistinguono dai problemi di mapping e di localizzazione trattati separatamente. In seguito, si effettua una analisi dei principali algoritmi impiegati al giorno d'oggi per la sua risoluzione, ovvero i filtri estesi di Kalman e i particle filter. Si analizzano poi le diverse tecnologie implementative esistenti, tra le quali figurano sistemi SONAR, sistemi LASER, sistemi di visione e sistemi RADAR; questi ultimi, allo stato dell'arte, impiegano onde millimetriche (mmW) e a banda larga (UWB), ma anche tecnologie radio già affermate, fra le quali il Wi-Fi. Infine, vengono effettuate delle simulazioni di tecnologie basate su sistema di visione e su sistema LASER, con l'ausilio di due pacchetti open source di MATLAB. Successivamente, il pacchetto progettato per sistemi LASER è stato modificato al fine di simulare una tecnologia SLAM basata su segnali Wi-Fi. L'utilizzo di tecnologie a basso costo e ampiamente diffuse come il Wi-Fi apre alla possibilità, in un prossimo futuro, di effettuare localizzazione indoor a basso costo, sfruttando l'infrastruttura esistente, mediante un semplice smartphone. Più in prospettiva, l'avvento della tecnologia ad onde millimetriche (5G) consentirà di raggiungere prestazioni maggiori

Proceedings of the 2011 Joint Workshop of Fraunhofer IOSB and Institute for Anthropomatics, Vision and Fusion Laboratory

This book is a collection of 15 reviewed technical reports summarizing the presentations at the 2011 Joint Workshop of Fraunhofer IOSB and Institute for Anthropomatics, Vision and Fusion Laboratory. The covered topics include image processing, optical signal processing, visual inspection, pattern recognition and classification, human-machine interaction, world and situation modeling, autonomous system localization and mapping, information fusion, and trust propagation in sensor networks