Michel Dhome

About

Michel Dhome is a prominent French computer vision and robotics researcher whose work has fundamentally advanced the field of vision-based autonomous navigation and camera calibration. Based at the Institut Pascal (formerly LASMEA) in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Dhome has built a distinguished career around replacing traditional, expensive sensors with elegant monocular vision solutions for real-world robotic applications. His most celebrated contribution — "Monocular Vision for Mobile Robot Localization and Autonomous Navigation" (2007, 324 citations) — demonstrated that a single camera could reliably guide mobile robots through complex environments, challenging the prevailing reliance on GPS and laser-based systems. This work, complemented by earlier studies comparing monocular vision directly against differential GPS in urban settings, established vision as a credible navigation backbone. His outdoor autonomous navigation system, which learns paths from human-guided demonstrations before operating independently, showcased remarkable practical ingenuity. Dhome also made lasting contributions to camera calibration, particularly for non-overlapping multi-camera rigs and parallel mechanisms, developing flexible, low-cost vision-based metrology tools that simplified previously demanding procedures. His work on hand-eye calibration further cemented his influence in vision-guided robotics. With over 800 cumulative citations across his key papers, Dhome's research remains essential reading for anyone working at the intersection of computer vision, SLAM, and autonomous robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Monocular Vision for Mobile Robot Localization and Autonomous Navigation

   324 citations · 2007
2. 2
   Simplifying the kinematic calibration of parallel mechanisms using vision-based metrology

   106 citations · 2006
3. 3
   Outdoor autonomous navigation using monocular vision

   90 citations · 2005
4. 4
   Flexible extrinsic calibration of non-overlapping cameras using a planar mirror: Application to vision-based robotics

   69 citations · 2010
5. 5
   Localization in Urban Environments: Monocular Vision Compared to a Differential GPS Sensor

   51 citations · 2005
6. 6
   Monocular Vision Based SLAM for Mobile Robots

   46 citations · 2006
7. 7
   Fast calibration of embedded non-overlapping cameras

   44 citations · 2011
8. 8
   Calibration of Non-Overlapping Cameras---Application to Vision-Based Robotics

   38 citations · 2010
9. 9
   Hand-eye calibration

   35 citations · 2002
10. 10
    Towards an alternative GPS sensor in dense urban environment from visual memory

    31 citations · 2004

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links