Stereo Visual Odometry for Autonomus Mobile

Estimating its ego-motion is one of the most important capabilities for an autonomous mobile platform. Without reliable ego-motion estimation no long-term navigation is possible. Besides odometry, inertial sensors, DGPS, laser range finders and so on, vision based algorithms can contribute a lot of information. In this paper, we want to give an integrated overview of stereo odometry. We want to emphasize the fact that stereo odometry is a chain of several single subprocesses where each relies on its predecessor’s results. The key to a more accurate and efficient stereo odometry lies in an integrated analysis of its single subprocesses and the many algorithms available.