VASC Seminar Announcement
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Speaker:   Pragyan Mishra
Affiliation:  Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute
E-mail:  pragyan@cs.cmu.edu
Date: Monday, August 19
Time: 3:30pm
Place: NSH 1507

Title:   MAPPING LARGE ENVIRONMENTS USING A SWARM OF CAMERAS

Abstract:

Many important applications need accurate 3D models of large
environments like cities or stretches of mountainous terrain
that span over thousands of square kilometers. Building such
models can be a daunting task. We examine this type of modeling
from the air using visual imagery.

Cameras deployed on a swarm of vehicles like helicopters,
blimps or low-altitude gliders over large areas can create
the 3D models we seek. Views from neighboring vehicles may
not have common features all the time. Given that we have
limited control over these vehicles, can we position them,
globally or locally, to map a high occlusion urban environment?

We examine this problem and present a potential approach to
model a large environment from a swarm of loosely connected
cameras. I will show how optimal triangulation can be used to
solve for structure and pose of the cameras. Another component
of the system is a scheme to match features over wide baselines.
I will outline my idea of combining all these components into a
single scheme to build a single textured 3D model of a scene in
presence of severe clutter and occlusion.