Absolute motion and structure from stereo image sequences without stereo correspondence and analysis of degenerate cases

This paper deals with the estimation of motion and structure with an absolute scale factor from stereo image sequences without stereo correspondence. We show that the absolute motion and structure can be determined using only motion correspondences. This property is very useful in two aspects: first, motion correspondence is easier to solve than stereo correspondence because sequences of images can be taken at short time intervals; second, it is not necessary that the rigid scene be included in the intersection of the field of view of the two cameras. It is also shown that the degenerate cases reported in this paper constitute all of the degenerate cases for the scheme and can be easily avoided.     

Stereo matching using gradient similarity and locally adaptive support-weight

Due to the similarities between neighbouring pixels as well as the intensity-value differences between corresponding pixels, classical matching measures based on intensity similarity produce slightly imprecise results. In this study, a gradient similarity-matching measure was implemented in a state-of-the-art local stereo-matching method (an adaptive support-weight algorithm). The new matching measure improved the precision of the results over the classical measures. Using the Middlebury stereo benchmark, when high accuracy was required in the disparity results our algorithm consistently outperformed other adaptive support-weight algorithms using different similarity measures, and it was the best local area-based method compared to the permanent Middlebury table entries.     

Accurate real-time stereo correspondence using intra- and inter-scanline optimization

This paper deals with a novel stereo algorithm that can generate accurate dense disparity maps in real time. The algorithm employs an effective cross-based variable support aggregation strategy within a scanline optimization framework. Rather than matching intensities directly, the use of adaptive support aggregation allows for precisely handling the weak textured regions as well as depth discontinuities. To improve the disparity results with global reasoning, we reformulate the energy function on a tree structure over the whole 2D image area, as opposed to dynamic programming of individual scanlines. By applying both intra- and inter-scanline optimizations, the algorithm reduces the typical ’streaking’ artifact while maintaining high computational efficiency. The experimental results are evaluated on the Middlebury stereo dataset, showing that our approach is among the best for all real-time approaches. We implement the algorithm on a commodity graphics card with CUDA architecture, running at about 35 fames/s for a typical stereo pair with a resolution of 384×288 and 16 disparity levels.     

Depth extraction using a single moving camera: an integration of depth from motion and depth from stereo

An integrated approach to extract depth, efficiently and accurately, from a sequence of images is presented in this paper. The method combines the ability of the stereo processing to acquire highly accurate depth measurements and the efficiency of spatial and temporal gradient analysis. As a result of this integration, depth measurements of high quality are obtained at a speed approximately ten times greater than that of stereo processing. Without any a priori information of the locations of the points in the scene, the correspondence problem in stereo processing is computationally expensive. In our approach, we use spatial and temporal gradient (STG) analysis, which has been shown to provide depth with great efficiency, but limited accuracy, to guide the matching process of stereo. The camera motion used in the approach can be either lateral or axial. Extensive experiments on real scenes have shown the ability of the integrated approach to acquire depth with a mean error of less than 3%.     

Arm motion analysis using genetic algorithm for rehabilitation and healthcare

The worlds population is quickly aging. With an aging society, an increase in patients with brain damage is predicted. In rehabilitation, the analysis of arm motion is vital as various day to day activities relate to arm movements. The therapeutic approach and evaluation method are generally selected by therapists based on his/her experience, which can be an issue for quantitative evaluation in any specific movement task. In this paper, we develop a measurement system for arm motion analysis using a 3D image sensor. The method of upper body posture estimation based on a steady-state genetic algorithm (SSGA) is proposed. A continuous model of generation for an adaptive search in dynamical environment using an adaptive penalty function and island model is applied. Experimental results indicate promising results as compared with the literature.     

Recursive estimation of motion and a scene model with a two-camera system of divergent view

This paper deals with recursive reconstruction of a scene model from unknown motion of a two-camera system capturing the images of the scene. Single camera systems with a relatively small field of view have limited accuracy because of the inherent confusion between translation and rotation. Estimation results from the stereo camera systems are also compromised due to this confusion if the systems require the fields of view to intersect for stereo correspondence. The cameras constituting the two-camera system considered in this paper are arranged so that there is a small intersection of the fields of view. This configuration of divergent view improves the accuracy of the structure and motion estimation because the ambiguity mentioned above decreases due to a large field of view. In this paper, a recursive algorithm is proposed for fast scene model reconstruction using a two-camera system of divergent view. Using inversely inferred stereo correspondences in the intersection of the fields of view is also proposed to remove degeneracy of scale factor determination and to acquire more accurate results from the information redundancy. The results of the experiments with long term real image sequences are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system.     

一种面向视觉注意区域检测的运动分割方法*

结合视觉显著区检测的特点,本文提出一种面向视觉注意区域检测的运动分割方法。该方法用一种层次聚类方法将特征点的运动轨迹进行聚类。首先用中值偏移算法扩大了不同类型运动之间特征向量的差距,同时缩小了相同运动类型的差别。继而,用一种无监督聚类算法,将不同类型的运动进行分割,同时自动获得运动分类数。最后利用运动分割结果,提出一种结合空间和颜色采样的运动显著区域生成方法。与以往方法相比,该方法能够将不同类型的运动自动进行分割,生成的视觉注意区域更为准确,而且稳定性大幅提高。实验结果证明了该方法的有效性和稳定性。     

Inverse analysis method using MPP-based dimension reduction for reliability-based design optimization of nonlinear and multi-dimensional systems

There are two commonly used analytical reliability analysis methods: linear approximation - first-order reliability method (FORM), and quadratic approximation - second-order reliability method (SORM), of the performance function. The reliability analysis using FORM could be acceptable in accuracy for mildly nonlinear performance functions, whereas the reliability analysis using SORM may be necessary for accuracy of nonlinear and multi-dimensional performance functions. Even though the reliability analysis using SORM may be accurate, it is not as much used for probability of failure calculation since SORM requires the second-order sensitivities. Moreover, the SORM-based inverse reliability analysis is rather difficult to develop.This paper proposes an inverse reliability analysis method that can be used to obtain accurate probability of failure calculation without requiring the second-order sensitivities for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of nonlinear and multi-dimensional systems. For the inverse reliability analysis, the most probable point (MPP)-based dimension reduction method (DRM) is developed. Since the FORM-based reliability index (β) is inaccurate for the MPP search of the nonlinear performance function, a three-step computational procedure is proposed to improve accuracy of the inverse reliability analysis: probability of failure calculation using constraint shift, reliability index update, and MPP update. Using the three steps, a new DRM-based MPP is obtained, which estimates the probability of failure of the performance function more accurately than FORM and more efficiently than SORM. The DRM-based MPP is then used for the next design iteration of RBDO to obtain an accurate optimum design even for nonlinear and/or multi-dimensional system. Since the DRM-based RBDO requires more function evaluations, the enriched performance measure approach (PMA+) with new tolerances for constraint activeness and reduced rotation matrix is used to reduce the number of function evaluations.     

Feature correspondence and motion recovery in vehicle planar navigation

This paper describes a strategy to feature point correspondence and motion recovery in vehicle navigation. A transformation of the image plane is proposed that keeps the motion of the vehicle on a plane parallel to the transformed image plane. This permits to define linear tracking filters to estimate the real-world positions of the features, and allows us to select the matches that accomplish the rigidity of the scene by a Hough transform. Candidate correspondences are selected by similarity, taking into account the smoothness of motion. Further processing brings out the final matching. The methods have been tested in a real application.     

Topological shape optimization of geometrically nonlinear structures using level set method

Using the level set method, a topological shape optimization method is developed for geometrically nonlinear structures in total Lagrangian formulation. The structural boundaries are implicitly represented by the level set function, obtainable from “Hamilton-Jacobi type” equation with “up-wind scheme,” embedded into a fixed initial domain. The method minimizes the compliance through the variations of implicit boundary, satisfying an allowable volume requirement. The required velocity field to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is determined by the descent direction of Lagrangian derived from an optimality condition. Since the homogeneous material property and implicit boundary are utilized, the convergence difficulty is significantly relieved.     

Proposal and validation of an optimization method using Monte Carlo method for multi-objective functions

Solving optimization problems is essential for many engineering applications and research tools. In a previous report, we proposed a new optimization method, MOST (Monte Carlo Stochastic Optimization), using the Monte Carlo method, and applied it to benchmark problems for optimization methods, and optimization of neural network machine learning. While the proposed method MOST was a single objective, this study is an extension of MOST so that it can be applied to multi-objective functions for the purpose of improving generality. As the verification, it was applied to the optimization problem with the restriction condition first, and it was also applied to the benchmark problem for the multi-objective optimization technique verification, and the validity was confirmed. For comparison, the calculation by genetic algorithm was also carried out, and it was confirmed that MOST was excellent in calculation accuracy and calculation time.     

Fusion of laser and visual data for robot motion planning and collision avoidance

In this paper, a method for inferring scene structure information based on both laser and visual data is proposed. Common laser scanners employed in contemporary robotic systems provide accurate range measurements, but only in 2D slices of the environment. On the other hand, vision is capable of providing dense 3D information of the environment. The proposed fusion scheme combines the accuracy of laser sensors with the broad visual fields of cameras toward extracting accurate scene structure information. Data fusion is achieved by validating 3D structure assumptions formed according to 2D range scans of the environment, through the exploitation of visual information. The proposed methodology is applied to robot motion planning and collision avoidance tasks by using a suitably modified version of the vector field histogram algorithm. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.Received: 10 May 2002, Accepted: 18 December 2002, Published online: 7 October 2003     

灰色线性双层指派问题的智能全局优化方法

在给出灰色线性双层指派问题数学模型及相关定义的基础上,利用灰色理论中的定位规划技术得到原问题的漂移型模型。针对其漂移型模型,基于遗传算法提出一个智能全局优化方法,并给出具体算法步骤。为了验证算法的有效性,分别构造小规模测试问题和中大规模测试问题验证了所给算法的正确性和实时性。     

A continuation/GMRES method for fast computation of nonlinear receding horizon control

In this paper, a fast numerical algorithm for nonlinear receding horizon control is proposed. The control input is updated by a differential equation to trace the solution of an associated state-dependent two-point boundary-value problem. A linear equation involved in the differential equation is solved by the generalized minimum residual method, one of the Krylov subspace methods, with Jacobians approximated by forward differences. The error in the entire algorithm is analyzed and is shown to be bounded under some conditions. The proposed algorithm is applied to a two-link arm whose dynamics is highly nonlinear. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is faster than the conventional algorithms.     

A scaled conjugate gradient method for nonlinear unconstrained optimization

We propose a new optimization problem which combines the good features of the classical conjugate gradient method using some penalty parameter, and then, solve it to introduce a new scaled conjugate gradient method for solving unconstrained problems. The method reduces to the classical conjugate gradient algorithm under common assumptions, and inherits its good properties. We prove the global convergence of the method using suitable conditions. Numerical results show that the new method is efficient and robust.     

Unified optical flow field approach to motion analysis from a sequence of stereo images

In this paper a new approach to motion analysis from stereo image sequences using unified temporal and spatial optical flow field (UOFF) is reported. That is, based on a four-frame rectangular model and the associated six UOFF field quantities, a set of equations is derived from which both position and velocity can be determined. It does not require feature extraction and correspondence establishment, which are known to be difficult, and only partial solutions suitable for simplistic situations have been developed. Furthermore, it is capable of detecting multiple moving objects even when partial occlusion occurs, and is potentially suitable for nonrigid motion analysis. Unlike the current existing techniques for motion analysis from stereo imagery, the recovered motion by using this new approach is for a whole continuous field instead of only for some features. It is a purely optical flow approach. Two experiments are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.     

Representing cyclic human motion using functional analysis

We present a robust automatic method for modeling cyclic 3D human motion such as walking using motion-capture data. The pose of the body is represented by a time-series of joint angles which are automatically segmented into a sequence of motion cycles. The mean and the principal components of these cycles are computed using a new algorithm that enforces smooth transitions between the cycles by operating in the Fourier domain. Key to this method is its ability to automatically deal with noise and missing data. A learned walking model is then exploited for Bayesian tracking of 3D human motion.     

On topology optimization of linear and nonlinear plate problems

In this paper we propose a new restriction method based on employing C ⁰-continuous fields of density defined on a set of meshes different from the one used for the finite element analysis. The optimization procedure starts with using a coarse density-mesh compared to the finite element one. Once the convergence is obtained in the optimization steps, a finer density-mesh is nominated for the further steps. Linear and nonlinear plate behaviors are considered and formulated by Kirchhoff or Mindlin–Reissner hypothesis. Comparison is made with element/nodal based approaches using filter. The results show excellent and robust performance of the proposed method.     

Estimation of 3D structure and motion from image corners

This paper deals with motion estimation from image corner correspondences in two cases: the orthogonal corner and the general corner with known space angles. The contribution of the paper is in three folds: First, the three-dimensional structure of a corner is recovered easily from its image by introducing a new coordinate system; second, it is shown that the one corner and two points correspondences over two views are sufficient to uniquely determine the motion, i.e., the rotation and translation; third, experiments using both simulated data and real images are conducted, which present good results.