Real-time 3D environment perception: An application for small humanoid robots

This paper presents a modular software architecture based on a stereo camera system that makes real-time 3D perception, interaction and navigation for small humanoid robots possible. The hardware-independent architecture can be used for several purposes, like 3D visualisation, object recognition, self-localization, collision avoidance, etc. First of all, the intrinsic calibration parameters of the stereo camera system are identified. Then the lens distortions of the input images are revised, and both images are rectified according to the extrinsic parameters to facilitate the subsequent correspondence analysis. The imaged scenery, as well as a region of interest, can be reconstructed either by the block-matching, the Schirai- or the Birchfield algorithm, followed by triangulation back into 3D space. Finally, the above-mentioned aims can be tackled based on the resulting 3D model computed by our modular software architecture.