DIGITAL

An Omnidirectional Time-of-Flight Camera and its Application to Indoor SLAM

Publication from Digital

Pirker K., Ruether M., Bischof H., Schweighofer G., Mayer H.

In 11th International Converence on Control,Automation,Robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2010,to appear, Dezember 2010., 12/2010

Abstract:

Photonic mixer devices (PMDs) are able to create reliable depth maps of indoor environments. Yet, their application in mobile robotics, especially in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) applications, is hampered by the limited field of view. Enhancing the field of view by optical devices is not trivial, because the active light source and the sensor rays need to be redirected in a defined manner. In this work we propose an omnidirectional PMD sensor which is well suited for indoor SLAM and easy to calibrate. Using a single sensor and multiple planar mirrors, we are able to reliably navigate in indoor environments to create geometrically consistent maps, even on optically difficult surfaces.