Noninvasive functional imaging of awake, unrestrained small animals using motion-compensation removes the need for anesthetics and enables an animal's behavioral response to stimuli or administered drugs to be studied concurrently with imaging. While the feasibility of motion-compensated radiotracer imaging of awake rodents using marker-based optical motion tracking has been shown, markerless motion tracking would avoid the risk of marker detachment, streamline the experimental workflow, and potentially provide more accurate pose estimates over a greater range of motion. We have developed a stereoscopic tracking system which relies on native features on the head to estimate motion. Features are detected and matched across multiple camera views to accumulate a database of head landmarks and pose is estimated based on 3D-2D registration of the landmarks to features in each image. Pose estimates of a taxidermal rat head phantom undergoing realistic rat head motion via robot control had a root mean square error of 0.15 and 1.8 mm using markerless and marker-based motion tracking, respectively. Markerless motion tracking also led to an appreciable reduction in motion artifacts in motion-compensated positron emission tomography imaging of a live, unanesthetized rat. The results suggest that further improvements in live subjects are likely if nonrigid features are discriminated robustly and excluded from the pose estimation process.

Photo-realistic 3D modeling is a challenging problem and has been a research topic for many years. Quick generation of photo-realistic three-dimensional calibrated models using a hand-held device is highly desirable for applications ranging from forensic investigation, mining, to mobile robotics. In this paper, we present the instant Scene Modeler (iSM), a 3D imaging system that automatically creates 3D models using an off-the-shelf hand-held stereo camera. The user points the camera at a scene of interest and the system will create a photo-realistic 3D calibrated model automatically within minutes. Field tests in various environments have been carried out with promising results

We have previously developed a mobile robot system which uses scale-invariant visual landmarks to localize and simultaneously build three-dimensional (3-D) maps of unmodified environments. In this paper, we examine global localization, where the robot localizes itself globally, without any prior location estimate. This is achieved by matching distinctive visual landmarks in the current frame to a database map. A Hough transform approach and a RANSAC approach for global localization are compared, showing that RANSAC is much more efficient for matching specific features, but much worse for matching nonspecific features. Moreover, robust global localization can be achieved by matching a small submap of the local region built from multiple frames. This submap alignment algorithm for global localization can be applied to map building, which can be regarded as alignment of multiple 3-D submaps. A global minimization procedure is carried out using the loop closure constraint to avoid the effects of slippage and drift accumulation. Landmark uncertainty is taken into account in the submap alignment and the global minimization process. Experiments show that global localization can be achieved accurately using the scale-invariant landmarks. Our approach of pairwise submap alignment with backward correction in a consistent manner produces a better global 3-D map.

Jose is a visually guided autonomous robotic waiter. He circulates around a room populated by groups of people, politely serving appetizers to humans. The serving task combines elements of robotics with human computer interaction, challenging control architecture with multiple task integration. This paper describes our purely vision-based approach to this task. Methods for mapping, localization and navigation are presented and discussed, including issues of safety for both robots and humans. Our work on human-robot interaction is covered, as well as our solutions to various tasks specific to serving food. We present results of our methods from sample experiments in our laboratory. We further discuss our experiences at the 2001 AAAI mobile robot "Hors D'oeuvres Anyone?" competition, at which Jose took first prize.

We consider the problem of creating a consistent alignment of multiple 3D submaps containing distinctive visual landmarks in an unmodified environment. An efficient map alignment algorithm based on landmark specificity is proposed to align submaps. This is followed by a global minimization using the close-the-loop constraint. Landmark uncertainty is taken into account in the pairwise alignment and the global minimization process. Experiments show that the pairwise alignment of submaps with backward correction produces a consistent global 3D map. Our vision-based mapping approach using sparse 3D data is different from other existing approaches which use dense 2D range data from laser or sonar rangefinders.

We have previously developed a mobile robot system which uses scale invariant visual landmarks to localize and simultaneously build a 3D map of the environment In this paper, we look at global localization, also known as the kidnapped robot problem, where the robot localizes itself globally, without any prior location estimate. This is achieved by matching distinctive landmarks in the current frame to a database map. A Hough transform approach and a random sample consensus (RANSAC) approach for global localization are compared, showing that RANSAC is much more efficient. Moreover, robust global localization can be achieved by matching a small sub-map of the local region built from multiple frames.

A key component of a mobile robot system is the ability to localize itself accurately and build a map of the environment simultaneously. In this paper, a vision-based mobile robot localization and mapping algorithm is described which uses scale-invariant image features as landmarks in unmodified dynamic environments. These 3D landmarks are localized and robot ego-motion is estimated by matching them, taking into account the feature viewpoint variation. With our Triclops stereo vision system, experiments show that these features are robustly matched between views, 3D landmarks are tracked, robot pose is estimated and a 3D map is built.

Our mobile robot system uses scale-invariant visual landmarks to localize itself and build a 3D map of the environment simultaneously. As image features are not noise-free, we carry out error analysis and use Kalman filters to track the 3D landmarks, resulting in a database map with landmark positional uncertainty. By matching a set of landmarks as a whole, our robot can localize itself globally based on the database containing landmarks of sufficient distinctiveness. Experiments show that recognition of position within a map without any prior estimate can be achieved using the scale-invariant landmarks.

Zebra-crossings are useful road features for outdoor navigation in mobility aids for the partially sighted. In this paper, zebra-crossings are detected by looking for groups of concurrent lines, edges are then partitioned using intensity variation information. In order to tackle the ambiguity of the detection algorithm in distinguishing zebra-crossings and stair-cases, pose information is sought. Three methods are developed to estimate the pose: homography search approach using an a priori model; finding normal using the vanishing line computed from equally-spaced lines and with two vanishing points. These algorithms have been applied to real images with promising results and they are also useful in some other shape from texture applications.