SEMI-AUTOMATED EDGE SEGMENT SPECIFICATION FOR AN INTERACTIVE MODELLING SYSTEM OF ROBOT ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Interactive methods are well suited to telerobotics purposes. Based on the super-imposition of the model on video images, they provide a friendly way to acquire or update the environment model from an on-board CCD camera. It is a flexible way to cope with a priori model inaccuracies and any possible mission incidents. Modelling time is a key requirement which can be fulfilled through the integration of semi-automatic assistances. This paper deals with the semi-automation of edge segment specification tasks. Edge segments combinations define 3-D lines or planes, which are used to orient the modelled objects. Their accurate specification is a tiring and time consuming task, which can not be fully automated. In the semi-automatic mode we set up, the operator quickly draws a line over the image. This line is automatically attracted towards the nearest extracted edge contour. The automatic attraction function is based on the Hough transform. This semiautomatic assistance has been integrated into the Pyramide interactive 3-D modelling system, which has been developed at CEA/STR. Evaluations on realistic sites showed its high flexibility and efficiency.