Catadioptric vehicle undercarriage imaging with visual path planning

摘要

This paper describes a mobile robot system used to image vehicle undercarriages. The approach uses a visual image processing technique to identify and paramaterise tyres as fiduciary markers from which pose estimation can be performed. After pose estimation is performed a path planning algorithm is used to navigate the mobile robot underneath the vehicle whilst imaging the vehicle undercarriage using a wide angle catadioptric imaging system. The images of the undercarriage are then re-projected to a flat plane and template matching assisted by odometry is used to generate a mosaic view of the vehicle undercarriage. The mobile robot imaging approach is evaluated visually, with images including imitation improvised explosive devices (IED's) and is shown to be significantly more versatile and safer for operators compared to alternate methods of undercarriage inspection.