Real-time human detection for robots using CNN with a feature-based layered pre-filter

Abstract

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs), in combination with big data, are increasingly being used to engineer robustness into visual classification systems including human detection. One significant challenge to using a CNN on a mobile robot, however, is the associated computational cost and detection rate of running the network. In this work, we demonstrate how fusion with a feature-based layered classifier can help. Not only does score-level fusion of a CNN with the layered classifier improve precision/recall for detecting people on a mobile robot, but using the layered system as a pre-filter can substantially reduce the computational cost of running a CNN - reducing the number of objects that need to be classified while still improving precision. The combined real-time system is implemented and evaluated on a two robots with very different GPU capabilities.