Traditional stereo algorithms have focused their efforts on reconstruction
quality and have largely avoided prioritizing for run time performance. Robots,
on the other hand, require quick maneuverability and effective computation to
observe its immediate environment and perform tasks within it. In this work, we
propose a high-performance and tunable stereo disparity estimation method, with
a peak frame-rate of 120Hz (VGA resolution, on a single CPU-thread), that can
potentially enable robots to quickly reconstruct their immediate surroundings
and maneuver at high-speeds. Our key contribution is a disparity estimation
algorithm that iteratively approximates the scene depth via a piece-wise planar
mesh from stereo imagery, with a fast depth validation step for semi-dense
reconstruction. The mesh is initially seeded with sparsely matched keypoints,
and is recursively tessellated and refined as needed (via a resampling stage),
to provide the desired stereo disparity accuracy. The inherent simplicity and
speed of our approach, with the ability to tune it to a desired reconstruction
quality and runtime performance makes it a compelling solution for applications
in high-speed vehicles.Comment: Accepted to International Conference on Robotics and Automation
(ICRA) 2016; 8 pages, 5 figure