A fast stereo matching algorithm used in target recognition of mobile robot

For the accuracy and real-time requirements of stereo matching when mobile robot recognizes the target, an improved winner-take-all (WTA) algorithm which is based on the parallel binocular system is proposed. First, extract the relatively big difference points between two images as feature points. Then, implement the stereo matching for the feature points using WTA algorithm and only implement a simple verification for nonfeature points. Nonfeature points´ disparity values are the ones of neighboring pixel. Finally, obtain a dense disparity map. The extracted feature points focus on the disparity discontinuity regions and the matching accuracy of the algorithm is equivalent to other existing algorithms. But calculation speed of the algorithm is faster and its edge feature is better. So it is a stereo matching algorithm with accurate matching and good real-time.