3D environment reconstruction using mobile robot platform and monocular vision

Abstract

Constructing a 3D map/perception model of an unknown indoor or outdoor environment using robotics is of compelling research nowadays because of the importance of the automatic monitoring system. Available IMU sensors and mobile robot kinematics allow 3D reconstruction to be finished in near real-time using a very low cost robotic platform. In this paper, we describe a framework for dense 3D reconstruction on an inexpensive robotic platform using a webcam and robot wheel odometry. Our experimental results show that our technique is efficient and robust to a variety of indoor and outdoor environment scenarios with different scale and size.