Vertical world feature detection and mapping using stereo vision and accelerometers

This paper explores the integration of inertial sensor data with vision. A method is proposed for vertical world feature detection and map building. Visual and inertial sensing are two sensory modalities that can be explored to give robust solutions on image segmentation and recovering of 3D structure from images. This enlarges the application potential of vision systems. From the inertial sensors and a few stereo vision system parameters we can recover the horizon, vertical and ground plane. The collienation of image ground points can be found. By detecting the vertical line segments in each image, and using the collineation of ground points for the foot of each segment, the lines can be matched and recovered in 3D. The mobile robot using this vision system can than map the detected vertical features in a world map as it moves.