Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors

Currently, many tasks can be carried out using mobile robots. These robots must be able to estimate their position in the environment to plan their actions correctly. Omnidirectional vision sensors constitute a robust choice to solve this problem, since they provide the robot with complete informati...

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Main Authors: Yerai Berenguer, Luis Payá, David Valiente, Adrián Peidró, Oscar Reinoso
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-02-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/3/323
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author Yerai Berenguer
Luis Payá
David Valiente
Adrián Peidró
Oscar Reinoso
author_facet Yerai Berenguer
Luis Payá
David Valiente
Adrián Peidró
Oscar Reinoso
author_sort Yerai Berenguer
collection DOAJ
description Currently, many tasks can be carried out using mobile robots. These robots must be able to estimate their position in the environment to plan their actions correctly. Omnidirectional vision sensors constitute a robust choice to solve this problem, since they provide the robot with complete information from the environment where it moves. The use of global appearance or holistic methods along with omnidirectional images constitutes a robust approach to estimate the robot position when its movement is restricted to the ground plane. However, in some applications, the robot changes its altitude with respect to this plane, and this altitude must be estimated. This work focuses on this problem. A method based on the use of holistic descriptors is proposed to estimate the relative altitude of the robot when it moves upwards or downwards. This descriptor is constructed from the Radon transform of omnidirectional images captured by a catadioptric vision system. To estimate the altitude, the descriptor of the image captured from the current position is compared with the descriptor of the reference image, previously built. The framework is based on the use of phase correlation to calculate relative orientation and a method based on the compression-expansion of the columns of the holistic descriptor to estimate relative height. Only an omnidirectional vision sensor and image processing techniques are used to solve these problems. This approach has been tested using different sets of images captured both indoors and outdoors under realistic working conditions. The experimental results prove the validity of the method even in the presence of noise or occlusions.
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spelling doaj.art-e71d4041b70a44d0bb86bfbbc53dbe4a2022-12-22T04:06:27ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922019-02-0111332310.3390/rs11030323rs11030323Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic DescriptorsYerai Berenguer0Luis Payá1David Valiente2Adrián Peidró3Oscar Reinoso4Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Alicante), SpainDepartamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Alicante), SpainDepartamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Alicante), SpainDepartamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Alicante), SpainDepartamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche (Alicante), SpainCurrently, many tasks can be carried out using mobile robots. These robots must be able to estimate their position in the environment to plan their actions correctly. Omnidirectional vision sensors constitute a robust choice to solve this problem, since they provide the robot with complete information from the environment where it moves. The use of global appearance or holistic methods along with omnidirectional images constitutes a robust approach to estimate the robot position when its movement is restricted to the ground plane. However, in some applications, the robot changes its altitude with respect to this plane, and this altitude must be estimated. This work focuses on this problem. A method based on the use of holistic descriptors is proposed to estimate the relative altitude of the robot when it moves upwards or downwards. This descriptor is constructed from the Radon transform of omnidirectional images captured by a catadioptric vision system. To estimate the altitude, the descriptor of the image captured from the current position is compared with the descriptor of the reference image, previously built. The framework is based on the use of phase correlation to calculate relative orientation and a method based on the compression-expansion of the columns of the holistic descriptor to estimate relative height. Only an omnidirectional vision sensor and image processing techniques are used to solve these problems. This approach has been tested using different sets of images captured both indoors and outdoors under realistic working conditions. The experimental results prove the validity of the method even in the presence of noise or occlusions.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/3/323altitude estimationcomputer visionglobal appearanceomnidirectional imagesRadon transform
spellingShingle Yerai Berenguer
Luis Payá
David Valiente
Adrián Peidró
Oscar Reinoso
Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
Remote Sensing
altitude estimation
computer vision
global appearance
omnidirectional images
Radon transform
title Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
title_full Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
title_fullStr Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
title_full_unstemmed Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
title_short Relative Altitude Estimation Using Omnidirectional Imaging and Holistic Descriptors
title_sort relative altitude estimation using omnidirectional imaging and holistic descriptors
topic altitude estimation
computer vision
global appearance
omnidirectional images
Radon transform
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/3/323
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AT adrianpeidro relativealtitudeestimationusingomnidirectionalimagingandholisticdescriptors
AT oscarreinoso relativealtitudeestimationusingomnidirectionalimagingandholisticdescriptors