Deflection-based force sensing for continuum robots: A probabilistic approach

Abstract

Two denoising techniques using reflectivity for noisy range images are proposed: range image smoothing by trilateral filter and range image inpainting by belief propagation. The trilateral filter makes use of reflectivity as well as spatial and intensity information so that geometric features, such as jump and roof edges, are preserved while smoothing. The range image inpainting technique based on belief propagation recovers a deteriorated range image using not only the adjacent range values but also the continuity of the reflectance image. We conduct simulations and experiments using synthesized images and actual range images taken by a laser scanner and verify that the proposed techniques suppress noise while preserving jump and roof edges and repair deteriorated range images.