Specification of the Map Frontend and Storage Concept This deliverable corresponds to task 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3. It describes the hardware and software requirements and specifications for the mapping and localization frontend and storage concepts in the cloud-based backend. pdf
Hermann Blum, Abel Gawel, Roland Siegwart and Cesar Cadena IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2018 Sensor fusion is a fundamental process in robotic systems as it extends the perceptual range and increases robustness in real-world operations. Current multi-sensor deep learning based semantic segmentation approaches do not provide robustness to under-performing classes in one modality, or require a specific architecture with access to the full aligned multi-sensor training data. In this work, we analyze statistical fusion approaches for semantic segmentation that overcome these drawbacks while keeping a competitive performance. The studied approaches are modular by construction, allowing to have different...
Mathias Buerki, Marcyn Dymczyk, Igor Gilitschenski, Cesar Cadena, Roland Siegwart, and Juan Nieto IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV) 2018 We present a complete map management process for a visual localization system designed for multi-vehicle long-term operations in resource constrained outdoor environments. Outdoor visual localization generates large amounts of data that need to be incorporated into a lifelong visual map in order to allow localization at all times and under all appearance conditions. Processing these large quantities of data is nontrivial, as it is subject to limited computational and storage capabilities both on the vehicle and on the mapping back-end. We...
A pose-graph map with visual landmarks is created from tracking local BRISK features on four fish-eye cameras mounted on the vehicle. Subsequent loop-closure detection, pose-graph relaxation and Bundle Adjustment generates a geometrically consistent map. Through offline localization of further datasets, the map can incorporate multiple sessions and cover a wide spectrum of appearance conditions. The resulting multi-session map can then be used for visual localization across weather and seasonal change in the long-term.
Miguel Valls, Hubertus Hendrikx, Victor Reijgwart, Fabio Meier, Inkyu Sa, Renaud Dube, Abel Gawel, Mathias Bürki and Roland Siegwart IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2018 This paper introduces fluela driverless: the first autonomous racecar to win a Formula Student Driverless competition. In this competition, among other challenges, an autonomous racecar is tasked to complete 10 laps of a previously unknown racetrack as fast as possible and using only onboard sensing and computing. The key components of fluela’s design are its modular redundant sub–systems that allow robust performance despite challenging perceptual conditions or partial system failures. The paper...
Thomas Schneider, Marcin Dymczyk, Marius Fehr, Kevin Egger, Simon Lynen, Igor Gilitschenski and Roland Siegwart IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2018 Robust and accurate visual-inertial estimation is crucial to many of today’s challenges in robotics. Being able to localize against a prior map and obtain accurate and drift-free pose estimates can push the applicability of such systems even further. Most of the currently available solutions, however, either focus on a single session use-case, lack localization capabilities or an end-to-end pipeline. We believe that by combining state-of-the-art algorithms, scalable multi-session mapping tools, and a flexible user interface, we can create an...
Cesar Cadena, Luca Carlone, Henry Carrillo, Yasir Latif, Davide Scaramuzza, Jose Neira, Ian Reid and John J. Leonard IEEE Transactions on Robotics 32 (6) pp 1309-1332, 2016 Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications, and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto standard formulation...
Mathias Buerki, Igor Gilitschenski, Elena Stumm, Roland Siegwart, and Juan Nieto International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2016 We present an online landmark selection method for efficient and accurate visual localization under changing appearance conditions. The wide range of conditions encountered during long-term visual localization by e.g. fleets of autonomous vehicles offers the potential exploit redundancy and reduce data usage by selecting only those visual cues which are relevant at the given time. Therefore co-observability statistics guide landmark ranking and selection, significantly reducing the amount of information used for localization while maintaining or even improving accuracy. pdf video...
