Terrain Mapping

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

To construct a 3D map of the immediate environment from a ground-based rover using depth cameras mounted on it.

PROPOSED SOLUTION:

A Digital Terrain Model (DTM) constructed using the sensor data from the Microsoft Kinect sensor in real time which can then be remotely accessed from any system. The Ground bot is expected to move at a speed of upto 1m/s to allow time for the Kinect to collect data and for the RPi to compute and store this data. ROS’ RTabMap package is to be used to create the model.

TECHNOLOGY USED

Raspberry Pi 4, Kinect V1, ROS

RESULTS

Setting up the Kinect, a Digital Terrain Model was obtained using the same. Kinect Sensor data of a test run was compiled and the resulting map analyzed for errors in accuracy. The updated algorithm has not yet been tested on the bot.

FUTURE WORK

To find a suitable sensor array configuration that would give RGB-D data comparable to that of a Kinect sesnor while being smaller and consuming less power. The sensors enabling RGB-D perception can be mounted onto a drone, with the sensors pointed downwards, so as to cover a much larger area in a given time.

REFERENCES AND PROJECT LINKS

GitHub Repository
http://wiki.ros.org/rtabmap_ros/Tutorials/HandHeldMapping

TEAM

Mentors : -
● Karn Tiwari - 2nd Year, Electrical and Electronics Engineering
● Nidhi Achar - 2nd Year Mechanical Engineering
● Sashi Sekharan - 2nd Year Mechanical Engineering
● Shreyas - 2nd Year Electrical and Electronics Engineering
● Sumanth Bharadwaj - 2nd Year Mechanical Engineering
● Atulya Mahesh - 3rd Year, Electronics and Communication Engineering (Project Mentor)
● Rahasya Barkur - 3rd Year, Electronics and Communication Engineering (Project Mentor)