Temporal Range Registration for Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicles

Published

May 1, 2004

Author(s)

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

Abstract

An iterative temporal registration algorithm is presented in this paper1 for registering 3D range images obtained from unmanned ground and aerial vehicles traversing unstructured environments. We are primarily motivated by the development of 3D registration algorithms to overcome both the unavailability and unreliability of Global Positioning System (GPS) within required accuracy bounds for Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) navigation. After suitable modications to the well-known Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm, the modied algorithm is shown to be robust to outliers and false matches during the registration of successive range images obtained from a scanning LADAR rangender on the UGV. Towards registering LADAR images from the UGV with those from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that ies over the terrain being traversed, we then propose a hybrid registration approach. In this approach to air to ground registration to estimate and update the position of the UGV, we register range data from two LADARs by combining a feature-based method with the aforementioned modied ICP algorithm. Registration of range data guarantees an estimate of the vehicle's position even when only one of the vehicles has GPS information. Temporal range registration enables position information to be continually maintained even when both vehicles can no longer maintain GPS contact.We present results of the registration algorithm in rugged terrain and urban environments using real eld data acquired from two different LADARs on the UGV.

Conference Dates

April 26-May 1, 2004

Conference Location

New Orleans, LA, USA

Conference Title

2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

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

Citation

Madhavan, R. , Hong, T. and Messina, E. (2004), Temporal Range Registration for Unmanned Ground and Aerial Vehicles, 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, New Orleans, LA, USA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=822515 (Accessed April 25, 2024)