Vision System for 3D rendering

[blackwindzx]

Hi, im new to this forum, and i would like to hear your advice.

We want to render in 3D what the UAV "see".
We did some research, and we came we 3 or 4 possible solutions:
1.- SONAR
2.- SAR (a radar type with interferometry)
3.- LIDAR
4.- Depth Sensing cameras

We want to render in 3D what the aircraft see, so we can have a good vision in the dark, and in in environments with poor vision (rain, snow, etc..)

The UAV flights over 2k to 5k feets and it can carry a system that weights at most 30 kilograms.

We DONT want a system that also does the 3D rendering, we only want a system/technology that we can attach to the aircraft, and that can obtain the data in poor vision environments.

Which system do you recommend to achieve what we want?
which are costs? is it hard to build that technology? (dont worry about the 3d programming)

thanks in advance.

[CrapouilloO]

You can use small LIDAR (can be heavy). I did my internship in a team working for automous car applications. They used these sensors with success. I've no skill about this but I can give you link here (http://ralyx.inria.fr/2006/Raweb/e-motion/uid36.html) and here (http://www.lara.prd.fr/en/research_agenda.php#Sensors_and_data_fusion) (abstracts). Else, you can use stereo vision (2 cameras) and apply v-disparity or uv-disparity algorithms here (http://vision.middlebury.edu/stereo/) (code and examples) or here (http://igm.univ-mlv.fr/LabInfo/rapportsInternes/2008/03.pdf) (french phd thesis)

[blackwindzx]

Thanks a lot, for the links, i'm going to read them.

but i have some questions:
You can use small LIDAR (can be heavy). I did my internship in a team working for automous car applications. They used these sensors with success.

1.-about how much weight do you mean by "heavy"?
2.- do you have an aproximation of how much does that cost?
3.-what exactly was that you did in your team? can you tell me about objectvives, problems, etc...?

[CrapouilloO]

3. - It's a little tricky b/c I worked for a team who develops a software for generating distributed code source for embedded applications thanks a schema blocks GUI. I used this software to develop a simple application for tracking and servoing autonomous cars with low cost components (1 FireWire Camera + PC with a Linux RTAI and image processing). I tested my application with this car (http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/cycab.gif) (looks like golf cars) which are maintained by a second team. This team works for autonomous road cars. They use lot of captors for road, pedestrian and car detection (stereo vision, LIDAR, ...). I cannot help you more about LIDAR b/c I didn't work with and now I no longer work with these 2 teams. But I guess LIDAR are good captors b/c they used it all time. A Ph.D. student (second team) gave me some papers about stereo vision and v-disparity. I gave you her thesis.

1. - 2. the weight ? I don't know b/c these sensors were already fixed on the car. I suppose more than 10 Kg. The price is expensive. I will send a mail to a friend to get more infos. They don't work for UAV so I don't know if these captors are good for planes.

[blackwindzx]

well, reading more about the systems, i conclude that LIDAR is no longer an option, because the weight is a lot more than the UAV can carry.
Hopefully, ISAR can do the thing...

[CrapouilloO]

And what about stereo vision ? low weight and good performance ?

[blackwindzx]

And what about stereo vision ? low weight and good performance ?

as for i have read, the problem with stero vision, is that in "hard" environments (rain, snow), there is a lot of noise, and the performance goes down a lot...

If possible, i would be nice if you could post what info did your friend told you.

[CrapouilloO]

Sorry no reply. I think he will never email me => no news