Publications

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European
Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)
under grant agreement n° 241523 “PRoViScout”

Muller, J-P and Shin, D (2012) Progressively weighted affine adaptive correlation matching for quasi-dense 3D reconstruction. Pattern Recognition , 45 (10) 3795 – 3809. 10.1016/j.patcog.2012.03.023.
Abstract: Correlation matching has been widely accepted as a rudimentary similarity measure to obtain dense 3D reconstruction from a stereo pair. In particular, given a large overlapping area between images with minimal scale differ- ences, the correlation results followed by a geometrically constrained global optimisation delivers adequately dense and accurate reconstruction results. In order to achieve greater reliability, however, correlation matching should correctly account for the geometrical distortion introduced by the different viewing angles of the stereo or multi-view sensors. Conventional Adaptive Least Squares Correlation (ALSC) matching addresses this by modifying the shape of a matching window iteratively, assuming that the distortion can be approximated by an affine transform. Nevertheless, since an image captured from different viewing angle is often not practically identical due to scene occlusions, the matching confidence normally deteriorates. Subsequently, it affects the density of the reconstruction results from ALSC-based stereo re- gion growing algorithms. To address this, we propose an advanced ALSC matching method that can progressively update matching weight for each pixel in an aggregating window using a relaxation labelling technique. The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve matching performance, which consequently enhances the quality of stereo reconstruc- tion. Also, the results demonstrate its ability to refine a scale invariant conjugate point pair to an affine and scale invariant point pair.

Paar, Gerhard; Woods, Mark; Gimkiewicz, Christiane; Labrosse, Frédéric; Medina, Alberto; Tyler, Laurence; Barnes, David P.; Fritz, Gerald; Kapellos, Konstantinos, PRoViScout: a planetary scouting rover demonstrator, Intelligent Robots and Computer Vision XXIX: Algorithms and Techniques. Edited by Röning, Juha; Casasent, David P. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8301, pp. 83010A-83010A-14 (2012) DOI: 10.1117/12.906122

Abstract: Mobile systems exploring Planetary surfaces in future will require more autonomy than today. The EU FP7-SPACE Project ProViScout (2010-2012) establishes the building blocks of such autonomous exploration systems in terms of robotics vision by a decision-based combination of navigation and scientific target selection, and integrates them into a framework ready for and exposed to field demonstration. The PRoViScout on-board system consists of mission management components such as an Executive, a Mars Mission On-Board Planner and Scheduler, a Science Assessment Module, and Navigation & Vision Processing modules. The platform hardware consists of the rover with the sensors and pointing devices. We report on the major building blocks and their functions & interfaces, emphasizing on the computer vision parts such as image acquisition (using a novel zoomed 3D-Time-of-Flight & RGB camera), mapping from 3D-TOF data, panoramic image & stereo reconstruction, hazard and slope maps, visual odometry and the recognition of potential scientifically interesting targets link to SPIE

Hauber, E.; Pullan, D.; Jaumann, R.; Muller, P.; Griffiths, A. & Paar, G., Science Requirements for a Planetary Robotic On-Board Vision Processing System (Abstract) GEOBIOLOGY IN SPACE EXPLORATION, ISPRS, Workshop at Université Cady Ayyad, Ibn Battuta Centre – Morocco, 2011

Hauber E.,Pullan D., Griffiths A., Paar G.: Science requirements for PRoViScout, a robotics vision system for planetary exploration, EPSC Abstracts, Vol 6, EPSC-DPS2011-1001, 2011 EPSC-SPS Joint Meeting 2011 full text

Paar, G.; Woods, M.; Pullan, D. & the PRoViScout Team, Robotics Vision for a Scouting Rover – ProViScout: EPSC Abstracts,Vol. 6, EPSC-DPS2011-123-4, 2011 EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011 La Cité Internationale des Congrès Nantes Métropole, 02 – 07 October 2011, Nantes, France, 2011 full text

PRoViScout Fieldtest 2012 in Medias:

Here you are the list of collected links to ProViScout over TV channels, newspapers and digital media:

http://ec.europa.eu/rea/about_us/news/2012_09_17_news_en.htm

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/telediario/telediario-21-horas-16-09-12/1528774/

(16/09/12 21h36 aprox):

http://www.antena3.com/videos-online/noticias/ciencia/rover-proximo-robot-que-ira-marte_2012091700134.html

http://www.infoespacial.com/?noticia=la-esa-prueba-el-sistema-visual-del-rover-idrix-en-la-isla-de-tenerife&categoria=plataformas-cat

http://www.diariodeavisos.com/2012/09/15/actualidad/minas-marcianas-del-teide/

http://www.laopinion.es/sociedad/2012/09/16/prueba-sistema-visual-robot-teide/434926.html?utm_source=rss

http://www.laprovincia.es/sociedad/2012/09/16/agencia-espacial-europea-prueba-sistema-visual-rover-teide/483592.html

http://www.canarias24horas.com/sociedad/ciencia-y-tecnologia/item/6596-cient%EDficos-europeos-prueban-en-las-ca%F1adas-del-teide-los-algoritmos-creados-para-el-rover-que-intervendr%E1-en-futuras-misiones-en-marte

http://eldia.es/2012-09-14/NORTE/5-Teide-vuelve-acoger-pruebas-robots-disenados-explorar-Marte.htm