Three-Dimensional Scene Analysis Using Stereo Based Imaging

摘要

This paper presents a new method for using passive binocular vision to create a map of the top-view of a robot's environment. Numerous autonomous robot navigation systems have been proposed; most attempt to match objects in separate images by using edges or by locating significant groups of edge pixels. The method described in this paper uses two cameras (aligned in parallel) to generate stereo images from which low level image features are extracted using a new non-linear production rule system, rather than a conventional spatial filter design. The image features are registered by matching and aligning correspondingly shaped regions of constant brightness levels in both images; the binocular offsets can then be computed. The use of heuristics and production rules to relieve the computational burden associated with low level image processing is unique, both in processing the images and in locating matching regions in the images. The feature extraction algorithm, the intermediate symbolic representations, and the application of these results to hierarchical structures common to context queuing systems are presented.