Broad Area Colloquium For AI-Geometry-Graphics-Robotics-Vision
Trends in Computer Vision for
NASA and DoD Mobile Robot Programs
Larry Matthies
Supervisor, Machine Vision and Tracking Sensors Group
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Wednesday, January 12, 2000
refreshments 4:05PM, talk begins 4:15PM
TCseq201, Lecture Hall B
http://robotics.stanford.edu/ba-colloquium/
Abstract
NASA and DoD are both funding substantial levels of mobile robot
research at present. A key hold-up in both domains has been the very
limited ability of robots to sense their environment; however,
progress in this area is accelerating considerably. I will survey
this progress in three programs that we participate in at JPL: (1)
planetary rover research, funded by NASA, (2) portable mobile robots
for urban reconnaissance, funded by DARPA, and (3) cross-country
mobile robots for reconnaissance in mechanized infantry battalions,
funded by the U.S. Army. Autonomous obstacle detection and position
estimation are core problems in all of these programs. I will discuss
the state of the art and open issues for these problems in each of the
above programs, including a discussion of roles played by real-time
stereo vision algorithms, compact scanning laser range finders,
multispectral cameras, night vision, and visual feature tracking.
NASA's goal is to return samples from Mars by 2008; autonomous rovers
are central to achieving this goal and the above technologies are key
enablers of the level of autonomy required. For Earth-based
applications in DoD and elsewhere, maturation of these technologies
may lead to fieldable mobile robots within 10 to 15 years.
About the Speaker
Dr. Larry Matthies obtained a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from
Carnegie Mellon University in 1989, then moved to the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, where he is currently a Principal Member of Technical
Staff and supervisor of the Machine Vision Group. His research has
focused on terrain sensing and obstacle avoidance algorithms for
autonomous navigation of robotic vehicles. At JPL, he pioneered the
development of real-time algorithms for stereo vision-based obstacle
detection and he contributed to the development of the structured
light sensor used by the Sojourner Mars rover. His group currently
has research projects on computer vision for robotic vehicles
sponsored by NASA, DARPA, and the U.S. Army; these projects include
work on navigation of Mars rovers, asteroid and comet landers, and
Earth-based robotic vehicles for urban and cross-country missions. He
is a member of the editorial board of the Autonomous Robots journal
and an adjunct member of the Computer Science Department at the
University of Southern California.
bac-coordinators@cs.stanford.edu
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Last modified: Fri Jan 7 11:20:35 PST 2000