Vision Based Localization and Environment Modeling for Unmanned Vehicles
Safety and operational demands require that operators of unmanned security and defence vehicles be located
at safe distances. The capability of creating photorealistic 3D models using on-board sensors on unmanned vehicles will
improve the operators’ situational awareness.
Over the last years MDA in Brampton have been developing computer vision technologies for localization and 3D modeling of
environments and objects from mobile cameras. The technology relies on real time image acquisition and processing using a
combination of dedicated hardware and software. The basic system processes images from stereo cameras and computes the
camera motion in 3D (position and orientation). A real-time version has been deployed on a mobile rover and has been used
as a visual odometry sub-system for off-road navigation.
The on-going work focuses on augmenting iSM with additional sensors (Infrared and Gamma) and creating multi-modal
representations of environments contaminated with Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear agents.