266 research outputs found
CASENet: Deep Category-Aware Semantic Edge Detection
Boundary and edge cues are highly beneficial in improving a wide variety of
vision tasks such as semantic segmentation, object recognition, stereo, and
object proposal generation. Recently, the problem of edge detection has been
revisited and significant progress has been made with deep learning. While
classical edge detection is a challenging binary problem in itself, the
category-aware semantic edge detection by nature is an even more challenging
multi-label problem. We model the problem such that each edge pixel can be
associated with more than one class as they appear in contours or junctions
belonging to two or more semantic classes. To this end, we propose a novel
end-to-end deep semantic edge learning architecture based on ResNet and a new
skip-layer architecture where category-wise edge activations at the top
convolution layer share and are fused with the same set of bottom layer
features. We then propose a multi-label loss function to supervise the fused
activations. We show that our proposed architecture benefits this problem with
better performance, and we outperform the current state-of-the-art semantic
edge detection methods by a large margin on standard data sets such as SBD and
Cityscapes.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 201
Eulerian and Lagrangian time scales of the turbulence above staggered arrays of cubical obstacles
We present results from water-channel experiments on neutrally-stable turbulent flows over staggered arrays of cubical obstacles modelling idealised urban canopies. Attention is concentrated on the vertical profiles of the Eulerian (TE) and Lagrangian (TL) time scales of the turbulence above three canopies with different plan area fractions (λP = 0.1, 0.25 and 0.4). The results show that both the streamwise and vertical components of TL increase approximately linearly with height above the obstacles, supporting Raupach’s linear law. The comparisons with the Lagrangian time scales over canyon-type canopies in the skimming flow and wake interference regimes show that the staggered configuration of cubical obstacles increases the streamwise TL, while decreasing its vertical counterpart. A good agreement has also been found between the eddy viscosities (KT) estimated by applying Taylor’s theory and the classical first order closure relating the momentum flux to the velocity gradient. The results show that KT obeys Prandtl’s theory, particularly for λP = 0.25 and 0.4
Learning high-speed flight in the wild
Quadrotors are agile. Unlike most other machines, they can traverse extremely complex environments at high speeds. To date, only expert human pilots have been able to fully exploit their capabilities. Autonomous operation with onboard sensing and computation has been limited to low speeds. State-of-the-art methods generally separate the navigation problem into subtasks: sensing, mapping, and planning. Although this approach has proven successful at low speeds, the separation it builds upon can be problematic for high-speed navigation in cluttered environments. The subtasks are executed sequentially, leading to increased processing latency and a compounding of errors through the pipeline. Here, we propose an end-to-end approach that can autonomously fly quadrotors through complex natural and human-made environments at high speeds with purely onboard sensing and computation. The key principle is to directly map noisy sensory observations to collision-free trajectories in a receding-horizon fashion. This direct mapping drastically reduces processing latency and increases robustness to noisy and incomplete perception. The sensorimotor mapping is performed by a convolutional network that is trained exclusively in simulation via privileged learning: imitating an expert with access to privileged information. By simulating realistic sensor noise, our approach achieves zero-shot transfer from simulation to challenging real-world environments that were never experienced during training: dense forests, snow-covered terrain, derailed trains, and collapsed buildings. Our work demonstrates that end-to-end policies trained in simulation enable high-speed autonomous flight through challenging environments, outperforming traditional obstacle avoidance pipelines
Automated 3D model generation for urban environments [online]
Abstract
In this thesis, we present a fast approach to automated
generation of textured 3D city models with both high details at
ground level and complete coverage for birds-eye view.
A ground-based facade model is acquired by driving a vehicle
equipped with two 2D laser scanners and a digital camera under
normal traffic conditions on public roads. One scanner is
mounted horizontally and is used to determine the approximate
component of relative motion along the movement of the
acquisition vehicle via scan matching; the obtained relative
motion estimates are concatenated to form an initial path.
Assuming that features such as buildings are visible from both
ground-based and airborne view, this initial path is globally
corrected by Monte-Carlo Localization techniques using an aerial
photograph or a Digital Surface Model as a global map. The
second scanner is mounted vertically and is used to capture the
3D shape of the building facades. Applying a series of automated
processing steps, a texture-mapped 3D facade model is
reconstructed from the vertical laser scans and the camera
images. In order to obtain an airborne model containing the roof
and terrain shape complementary to the facade model, a Digital
Surface Model is created from airborne laser scans, then
triangulated, and finally texturemapped with aerial imagery.
Finally, the facade model and the airborne model are fused
to one single model usable for both walk- and fly-thrus. The
developed algorithms are evaluated on a large data set acquired
in downtown Berkeley, and the results are shown and discussed
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