The robotics field has grown in recent years to a point where unmanned systems are no longer limited by their capabilities. As such, the mission profiles for unmanned systems are becoming more and more complicated, and a demand has risen for the deployment of unmanned systems into the most complex of environments. Additionally, the objectives for unmanned systems are once more complicated by the necessity for beyond line of sight teleoperation, and in some cases complete vehicle autonomy.
Such systems require adequate sensory devices for appropriate situational awareness. Additionally, a large majority of what is currently being done with unmanned systems requires visual data acquisition. A stereo vision system is ideal for such missions as it doubles as both an image acquisition device, and a range finding device. The 2D images captured with a stereo vision system can be mapped to three dimensional point clouds with reference to the optic center of one of the stereo cameras. While stand alone commercial stereo vision systems are capable of doing just that, the GPS/INS aided stereo vision system also has integrated 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyros, 3-axis magnetometer, and GPS receiver allowing for the measurement of the system's position and orientation in global coordinates. This capability provides the potential to geo-reference the 3D data captured with the stereo camera.
The GPS/INS aided stereo vision system integrates a combination of commercial and in-house developed devices. The total system includes a Point Grey Research Bumblebee stereovision camera, a Versalogic PC104 computer, a PCB designed for sensor acquisition and power considerations, and a self contained battery. The entire system is all contained within a 9.5â x 5â x 6.5â aluminum enclosure and weighs approximately 6 lbs. The system is also accompanied with a graphical user interface which displays the geo-referenced data within a 3D virtual environment providing adequate sensor feedback for a teleoperated unmanned vehicle.
This thesis details the design and implementation of the hardware and software included within this system as well as the results of operation. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32263 |
| Date | 03 June 2008 |
| Creators | Sharkasi, Adam Tawfik |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Kochersberger, Kevin B., Wicks, Alfred L., Rhody, Harvey |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | Thesis_Sharkasi.pdf |
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