Outdoor ride: Data fusion of a 3D Kinect camera installed in a bicycle

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental test that applies a low cost 3D sensor, i.e. a Kinect camera, for the perception of the terrain quality for the synthesis of a safe path. The 3D images are processed for generating a local 3D map, in front of the bicycle. The real time processing is based on a Piece Wise Multi-Linear (PWML) approximation of the 3D surfaces. The PWML patches are classified for inferring the traversability of the terrain. The acquired datasets are also made public for the educational and research community.