Temporal Range Registration for Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicles

Published

November 30, 2005

Author(s)

Rajmohan (. Madhavan, Tsai H. Hong, Elena R. Messina

Abstract

An iterative temporal registration algorithm is presented in this article for registering 8 3D range images obtained from unmanned ground and aerial vehicles traversing unstructured 9 environments. We are primarily motivated by the development of 3D registration algorithms to 10 overcome both the unavailability and unreliability of Global Positioning System (GPS) within 11 required accuracy bounds for Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) navigation. After suitable 12 modifications to the well-known Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm, the modified algorithm is 13 shown to be robust to outliers and false matches during the registration of successive range images 14 obtained from a scanning LADAR rangefinder on the UGV. Towards registering LADAR images 15 from the UGV with those from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that flies over the terrain 16 being traversed, we then propose a hybrid registration approach. In this approach to air to ground 17 registration to estimate and update the position of the UGV, we register range data from two 18 LADARs by combining a feature-based method with the aforementioned modified ICP algorithm. 19 Registration of range data guarantees an estimate of the vehicle?s position even when only one of 20 the vehicles has GPS information. Temporal range registration enables position information to be 21 continually maintained even when both vehicles can no longer maintain GPS contact. We present 22 results of the registration algorithm in rugged terrain and urban environments using real field data 23 acquired from two different LADARs on the UGV.

Citation

Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (2005) DOI: 10.1007/s10846-005-9025-1

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

iterative registration, LADAR/LIDAR Sensors, position estimation, Robotics & Intelligent Systems, unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, Unmanned Systems

Citation

Madhavan, R. , Hong, T. and Messina, E. (2005), Temporal Range Registration for Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicles, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (2005) DOI: 10.1007/s10846-005-9025-1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=822691 (Accessed October 27, 2025)