Void detection for UAV based on optical flow and vanishing points

  • Débora N.P. Oliveira Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande
  • Davi J.G. Sousa Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande
  • Marcos R.A. Morais Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande
  • Antonio M.N. Lima Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande
Keywords: image processing, navigation, obstacle avoidance, vanishing point, optical flow

Abstract

Indoor micro aerial vehicle (MAV) navigation is mostly based on high-computational cost obstacle detection algorithms. In this paper, we propose a path planning framework based on perspective cues. The vanishing points were detected by using the Hough-Canny transform. Due to the cluttering, multiple vanishing points candidates are arranged according to the proximity to the optical flow focus of expansion. Obstacles' depths are detected via the optical flow vector clustering. When multiple planes are recognized, the elected vanishing point is considered the center of the furthest empty plane from the camera. This remark guides the direction of the MAV to a particularly free-of-obstacles void area. Preliminary experimental results indicate that the proposed method is faster than other visual-based navigation algorithms.
Published
2021-10-20
Section
Articles