Optimum camera placement by robot teams in unstructured field environments

Abstract

In field environments it is not usually possible to provide robotic systems with valid/complete geometric models of the task and environment. The robot or robot teams will need to create these models by performing appropriate sensor actions. Additionally, the robot(s) will need to position their sensors in a task directed optimum way. Here, an algorithm based on iterative sensor planning and sensor redundancy is proposed to enable them to efficiently position their cameras with respect to the task/target. The method assumes stationary robotic vehicles with cameras carried by articulated mounts. The algorithm uses the measured scene information to find new camera mount poses. Simulations and experiments show the effectiveness of this algorithm.