Environment map building and localization for robot navigation based on image sequences

SLAM is one of the most important components in robot navigation. A SLAM algorithm based on image sequences captured by a single digital camera is proposed in this paper. By this algorithm, SIFT feature points are selected and matched between image pairs sequentially. After three images have been captured, the environment’s 3D map and the camera’s positions are initialized based on matched feature points and intrinsic parameters of the camera. A robust method is applied to estimate the position and orientation of the camera in the forthcoming images. Finally, a robust adaptive bundle adjustment algorithm is adopted to optimize the environment’s 3D map and the camera’s positions simultaneously. Results of quantitative and qualitative experiments show that our algorithm can reconstruct the environment and localize the camera accurately and efficiently.

Terrain-Aided Navigation Considering Map Error

Terrain referenced navigation estimates an aircraft navigation status by utilizing a radar altimeter measuring a distance between the aircraft and terrain elevation. Accurate digital elevation map is essential to estimate the aircraft states correctly. However, the elevation map cannot represent the real terrain perfectly and there exists map error between the estimated and the true maps. In this paper, an influence of the map error on measurement equation is analyzed and a technique to incorporate the error in the filter is proposed. The map error is divided into two sources, accuracy error and resolution error. The effectiveness of the suggested technique is verified by simulation results. The method modifies a sensor noise covariance only so there is no additional computational burden from the conventional filter.

An Object-based Approach for Two-level Gully Feature Mapping Using High-resolution DEM and Imagery： A Case Study on Hilly Loess Plateau Region, China

Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.