Ground plane detection using visual and inertial data fusion

Active vision systems can be used in robotic systems for navigation. The active vision system provides data on the robot’s environment. In mobile systems the position and attitude of the cameras relative to the world can be hard to determine. Inertial sensors coupled to the active vision system can provide valuable information to aid the image processing task. In human and other animals the vestibular system plays a similar role. In this article, we explain our recent steps in the integration of inertial data with an active vision system. The active vision system has a set of stereo cameras capable of vergence, with a common baseline, pan and tilt. A process of visual fixation has already been implemented, enabling symmetric vergence on any selected point. An inertial system prototype, based on low-cost sensors was built. It is used to keep track of the gravity vector, allowing the identification of the vertical in the images. By performing visual fixation of a ground plane point, and knowing the 3D vector normal to level ground, we can determine the ground plane. The image can therefore be segmented, and the ground plane along which the robot can move identified. For on-the-fly visualisation of the segmented images and the detected points a VRML viewer is used.