Visual odometry and mapping for autonomous flight using an RGB-D camera
Abstract
RGB-D cameras provide both a color image and per-pixel depth estimates. The richness of their data and the recent development of low-cost sensors have combined to present an attractive opportunity for mobile robotics research. In this paper, we describe a system for visual odometry and mapping using an RGB-D camera, and its application to autonomous flight. By leveraging results from recent state-of-the-art algorithms and hardware, our system enables 3D flight in cluttered environments using only onboard sensor data. All computation and sensing required for local position control are performed onboard the vehicle, reducing the dependence on unreliable wireless links. We evaluate the effectiveness of our system for stabilizing and controlling a quadrotor micro air vehicle, demonstrate its use for constructing detailed 3D maps of an indoor environment, and discuss its limitations.
This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research under MURI N00014-07-1-0749, Science of Autonomy program N00014-09-1-0641 and the Army Research Office under the MAST CTA. D.M. acknowledges travel support from P. Universidad Cato´lica’s School of Engineering. P.H. and D.F. are supported by ONR MURI grant number N00014-09-1- 1052, and by the NSF under contract number IIS-0812671, as well as collaborative participation in the Robotics Consortium sponsored by the U.S Army Research Laboratory under Agreement W911NF-10-2-0016.
BibTeX
@conference{Huang-2011-127235,author = {Albert S. Huang and Abraham Bachrach and Peter Henry and Michael Krainin and Daniel Maturana and Dieter Fox and Nicholas Roy},
title = {Visual odometry and mapping for autonomous flight using an RGB-D camera},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 15th International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR '11)},
year = {2011},
month = {August},
pages = {235 - 252},
}