Whelan, Thomas and Kaess, Michael and Johannsson, Hordur and Fallon, Maurice and Leonard, John J. and McDonald, John (2015) Real-time large-scale dense RGB-D SLAM with volumetric fusion. International Journal of Robotics Research, 34 (4-5). pp. 598-626. ISSN 278-3649

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Abstract

We present a new simultaneous localization and mapping SLAM system capable of producing high-quality globally consistent surface reconstructions over hundreds of meters in real time with only a low-cost commodity RGB-D sensor. By using a fused volumetric surface reconstruction we achieve a much higher quality map over what would be achieved using raw RGB-D point clouds. In this paper we highlight three key techniques associated with applying a volumetric fusion-based mapping system to the SLAM problem in real time. First, the use of a GPU-based 3D cyclical buffer trick to efficiently extend dense every-frame volumetric fusion of depth maps to function over an unbounded spatial region. Second, overcoming camera pose estimation limitations in a wide variety of environments by combining both dense geometric and photometric camera pose constraints. Third, efficiently updating the dense map according to place recognition and subsequent loop closure constraints by the use of an 'as-rigid-as-possible' space deformation. We present results on a wide variety of aspects of the system and show through evaluation on de facto standard RGB-D benchmarks that our system performs strongly in terms of trajectory estimation, map quality and computational performance in comparison to other state-of-the-art systems.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the postprint version of the published article, which is available at DOI: 10.1177/0278364914551008
Keywords:	Volumetric fusion; camera pose estimation; dense methods; large scale; real time; RGB-D; SLAM; GPU;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science
Item ID:	8270
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364914551008
Depositing User:	John McDonald
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2017 16:06
Journal or Publication Title:	International Journal of Robotics Research
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council
URI:	http://journals.sagepub.com
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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