VISION FOR MOBILE ROBOTS

Localized feature points, particularly corners, can be computed rapidly and reliably in images, and they are stable over image sequences. Corner points provide more constraint than edge points, and this additional constraint can be propagated effectively from corners along edges. Implemented algorithms are described to compute optic flow and to determine scene structure for a mobile robot using stereo or structure from motion. It is argued that a mobile robot may not need to compute depth explicitly in order to navigate effectively.