Keith Krapels

US Night Vision (United States), United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Keith Krapels is a researcher whose work centers on advancing the capabilities of flash LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) systems, particularly for robotics and autonomous navigation. His major contributions lie in the application of super-resolution techniques to overcome the inherent spatial resolution limitations of these compact, high-frame-rate sensors. Krapels developed a novel wavelet-based preprocessing stage that enhances the registration of multiple frames, enabling effective super-resolution reconstruction. This work directly addresses a critical trade-off in flash LADAR: its advantages in size, cost, and speed versus its poor image quality. His most cited paper, "Super-resolution for flash ladar imagery" (2010, 13 citations), and a related study (2009, 6 citations) together form the core of his impact, demonstrating a practical pathway to improve the utility of these sensors for obstacle avoidance and autonomous navigation. By improving the resolution of flash LADAR data, Krapels’ research helps make these devices more viable for real-world robotic applications, bridging the gap between their theoretical promise and practical deployment.