Visual Odometry using sparse bündle adjustment on an autonomous outdoor vehicle

Abstract

Visual Odometry is the process of estimating the movement of a (stereo) camera through its environment by matching point features between pairs of consecutive image frames. No prior knowledge of the scene nor the motion is necessary. In this work, we present a visual odometry approach using a specialized method of sparse bundle adjustment. We show experimental results that proof our approach to be a feasible method for estimating motion in unstructured outdoor environments.