Toshinobu Watanabe
(Advisor: Prof. Johnson and Prof. Prasad]

will defend a doctoral thesis entitled,

PIXEL INVERSE DEPTH PARAMETERIZATION, THEORY AND APPLICATION

On

Wednesday, January 11 at 1:00 p.m.
Montgomery Knight Building 317
 

Abstract
This research seeks to improve upon inverse depth parameterization (IDP), a standard method used to represent spatial coordinates of feature points in map estimation. If the original measurement noise is Gaussian, the IDP can linearize the estimation process and maintain the Gaussian distribution. However, the initialization of IDP is heuristic, not analytic, due to the coordination characteristic. This research proposes a new method, termed pixel inverse depth parameterization (PIDP), which enables an analytic initialization. The proposed technology makes the initialization possible to establish a correct connection between initialization and update probabilistically. This research also introduces two applications of PIDP. First, the PIDP property of being able to initialize leads to a proposed method for estimating spatial points with an array of multiple cameras, including an algorithm and an accompanying optimization method. Although there is a method of estimating a spatial location with a stereo camera, there are few methods for combining and estimating by using more than two cameras – which is enabled by less expensive cameras and processors. This method does not require iterative calculations. The proposed method makes estimation possible with one regression. As a second application, PIDP is implemented and tested in an error-state Kalman filter for a robust state estimation method. Then, a comparison between PIDP and IDP is performed by simulation.

Committee

• Prof. Eric N. Johnson – Department of Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania State University (Co-advisor)
• Prof. Jonnalagadda V R Prasad– School of Aerospace Engineering (Co-advisor)
• Prof. Eric Marie J Feron – School of Computer Science
• Prof. Hao-Min Zhou – School of Mathematics
• Prof. Patricio Antonio Vela – School of Electrical and Computer Engineering