This is a master thesis of the Master of Science degree program in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Linköping University. The goal of this thesis is to find out how the Microsoft Kinect can be used as a part of a camera rig to create accurate 3D-models of an indoor environment. The Microsoft Kinect is marketed as a touch free game controller for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console. The Kinect contains a color and a depth camera. The depth camera works by constantly projecting a near infrared dot pattern that is observed with a near infrared camera. In this thesis it is described how to model the near infrared projector pattern to enable external near infrared cameras to be used to improve the measurement precision. The depth data that the Kinect output have been studied to determine what types of errors it contains. The finding was that the Kinect uses an online calibration algorithm that changes the depth data.

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is the emergency response function that deals with the collapse of man-made structures. USAR environments contain concrete rubble, dust and debris, and provide poor lighting conditions. Due to the dangers that USAR rescue workers and their canines face, robots have become of interest in aiding rescue workers in searching. Experiences with robots in USAR missions have shown that a compact 3D sensor for 3D mapping of the environment is beneficial in providing the robot and identified victims’ locations within the structurally unstable environment. This thesis presents the developments of a novel 3D sensory system that provides both 3D and 2D texture information for mapping of cluttered unknown USAR environments. The sensor has been integrated into a robot platform, and experiments conducted to validate its usability in such applications. The experimental results show the potential for using this sensor in USAR robot mission.

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is the emergency response function that deals with the collapse of man-made structures. USAR environments contain concrete rubble, dust and debris, and provide poor lighting conditions. Due to the dangers that USAR rescue workers and their canines face, robots have become of interest in aiding rescue workers in searching. Experiences with robots in USAR missions have shown that a compact 3D sensor for 3D mapping of the environment is beneficial in providing the robot and identified victims’ locations within the structurally unstable environment. This thesis presents the developments of a novel 3D sensory system that provides both 3D and 2D texture information for mapping of cluttered unknown USAR environments. The sensor has been integrated into a robot platform, and experiments conducted to validate its usability in such applications. The experimental results show the potential for using this sensor in USAR robot mission.

In manufacturing, metrological inspection is a time-consuming process. The higher the required precision in inspection, the longer the inspection time. This is due to both slow devices that collect measurement data and slow computational methods that process the data. The goal of this work is to propose methods to speed up some of these processes. Conventional measurement devices like Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) have high precision but low measurement speed while new digitizer technologies have high speed but low precision. Using these devices in synergy gives a significant improvement in the measurement speed without loss of precision. The method of synergistic integration of an advanced digitizer with a CMM is discussed. Computational aspects of the inspection process are addressed next. Once a part is measured, measurement data is compared against its model to check for tolerances. This comparison is a time-consuming process on conventional CPUs. We developed and benchmarked some GPU accelerations. Finally, naive data fitting methods can produce misleading results in cases with non-uniform data. Weighted total least-squares methods can compensate for non-uniformity. We show how they can be accelerated with GPUs, using plane fitting as an example. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)