15 accepted papers
We explore the geolocation problem, aiming to localize ground-view images on cartographic maps, without the need of any GPS priors. This task mimics the human wayfinding ability and offers high scalability and robustness by using the compact and semantic representations of maps. Current methods ofte…
Visual SLAM uses visual information, typically point features, to localise a camera and, at the same time, map the environment. In recent years, there has been interest in using scene-understanding capabilities to enhance the mapping process and object-level SLAM systems have appeared in response. H…
We describe a novel approach to indoor place recognition from RGB point clouds based on aggregating low-level colour and geometry features with high-level implicit semantic features. It uses a 2-stage deep learning framework, in which the first stage is trained for the auxiliary task of semantic seg…
It is well known that visual SLAM systems based on dense matching are locally accurate but are also susceptible to long-term drift and map corruption. In contrast, feature matching methods can achieve greater long-term consistency but can suffer from inaccurate local pose estimation when feature inf…
The ability to localise is key for robot navigation. We describe an efficient method for vision-based localisation, which combines sequential Monte Carlo tracking with matching ground-level images to 2-D cartographic maps such as OpenStreetMaps. The matching is based on a learned embedded space repr…
We present a purely vision based geolocation method for aircraft flying over urban and suburban environments. The method is based on matching aerial images with geolocated map tiles using a shared low dimensional embedded space of descriptors. The Euclidean distance between descriptors is used as a…
We propose a novel object-augmented RGB-D SLAM system that is capable of constructing a consistent object map and performing relocalisation based on centroids of objects in the map. The approach aims to overcome the view dependence of appearance-based relocalisation methods using point features or i…
We present a novel approach to geolocalising panoramic images on a 2-D cartographic map based on learning a low dimensional embedded space, which allows a comparison between an image captured at a location and local neighbourhoods of the map. The representation is not sufficiently discriminatory to…
We present a novel method of integrating image-based measurements into a drone navigation system for the automated inspection of wind turbines. We take a model-based tracking approach, where a 3D skeleton representation of the turbine is matched to the image data. Matching is based on comparing the…
We present a method for simultaneous localisation and wind turbine model fitting for a drone performing an automated surface inspection. We use a skeletal parameterisation of the turbine that can be easily integrated into a non-linear least squares optimiser, combined with a pose graph representatio…
We describe a novel approach to image based localisation in urban environments which uses semantic matching between images and a 2-D cartographic map. This contrasts with the majority of existing approaches which use image to image database matching. We use highly compact binary descriptors to repre…
In this work we present a novel framework that uses deep learning to predict object feature points that are out-of-view in the input image. This system was developed with the application of model-based tracking in mind, particularly in the case of autonomous inspection robots, where only partial vie…
We describe a new approach to absolute pose estimation from noisy and outlier contaminated matching point sets for RGB-D sensors. We show that by integrating multiple forms of correspondence based on 2-D and 3-D points and surface normals gives more precise, accurate and robust pose estimates. This
Building on our previous work [1], in this paper we demonstrate how it is possible to improve flight control of a MAV that experiences aerodynamic disturbances caused by objects on its path. Predictions based on low resolution depth images taken at a distance are incorporated into the flight control…
We describe a novel RGBD relocalisation algorithm based on key point matching. It combines two components. First, a graph matching algorithm which takes into account the pairwise 3-D geometry amongst the key points, giving robust relocalisation. Second, a point selection process which provides an ev…