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1st PRoVisG Newsletter

Monday, October 4, 2010

Editorial Comment

The PRoVisG consortium is proud to present the first of a series of quarterly newsletters. The EC FP7-SPACE Project PRoVisG brings together major EU and US research institutions and stakeholders involved in space robotic vision and navigation to develop a unified approach to robotic vision ground processing. PRoVisG will build a unified European framework for Robotic Vision Ground Processing. State-of-art computer vision technology will be collected inside and outside Europe to better exploit the image data gathered during future robotic space missions to the Moon and the Planets. This will lead to a significant enhancement of the scientific, technologic and educational outcome of such missions. For details please visit our webpage www.provisg.eu.

The PRoVisG partners are:

Associated:

 

Science and Technology

 

Field Test, Data Collection and 3D Vision Processing at Clarach Bay

From July 7-9, a field test on the 'eyes' for new Mars rovers was conducted by PRoVisG partners at Clarach Bay, a sunny beach in Aberystwyth. The Bridget prototype rover was put through her paces testing sophisticated camera hardware and software and collecting 3D vision data.

 

In the field test, a new camera sensor suite, designed and built by CSEM, was introduced. The sensor suite consisted of two miniature omni-view cameras for stereo vision and one 3D-time-of-flight (TOF) camera. The stereovision pair of cameras was capable of capturing 1024x1024 images at 37fps. The 3D-TOF camera was based on the latest MESA Imaging technology capable of accurately sensing surrounding objects up to a few meters. The sensor suite was mounted on Bridget for 3D data acquisition of motion sequences in real time.

 

Other experiments and 3D data acquisitions include: image acquisition for AU PanCam color calibration, imaging and 3D reconstruction of panoramas from Bridget and tripod, SLAM image data acquisition from webcam, rehearsal of AMASE campaign operations, imaging of a motion sequence using AU WAC pair on Bridget, and DLR HRC image acquisition on 3 scientifically interesting targets (landslide, rocks, and layered cliff).

 

 

 

Aberystwyth University contributes to Exomars

A BEACH in West Wales doubled for the surface of Mars today as a state-of-the-art robot was put through its paces.Clarach Bay was chosen as the place to test the vision of the new mars rover 'Bridget' which is being developed by academics at nearby Aberystwyth University.The university is leading the development of the Panoramic Camera (PanCam) for the robot, which is due to be sent to the red planet in a joint ESA/ NASA ExoMars mission scheduled for 2018. Professor David Barnes said the field trials went according to plan.

See the press release on http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/07/14/mars-rover-bridget-put-through-its-paces-on-welsh-beach-91466-26854943/.

 

 

 

Seven years of Mars Express - unusual structures at Magellan Crater

 

In the southwest of the Tharsis volcanic region on Mars is the large impact crater Magellan, named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521). The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), carried by ESA's Mars Express orbiter and operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), acquired images of unusual structures on the southern edge of the crater. The process by which these structures developed is not fully understood.

For more details go to http://www.dlr.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1/86_read-25233/.  

 

 

MSSL designs 'eyes' of robot scientist bound for Mars

Professor Andrew Coates from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is leading the team designing the Panoramic Camera, or PanCam, aboard the ExoMars rover. The 'robotic scientist' will search for evidence of past and present life and study the local environment of the Red Planet to understand when and where conditions that could have supported the development of life may have prevailed.

http://www.physorg.com/news195834060.html

 

Spectacular Mars images reveal evidence of ancient lake

 

The evidence comes from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) which spied a series of depressions linked by what look like drainage channels. Recent research, led by a team from Imperial College London and University College London (UCL), suggests that during the Hesperian Epoch, approximately 3 billion years ago, Mars had lakes made of melted ice, each around 20km wide, along parts of the equator. Earlier research had suggested that Mars had a warm and wet early history but that between 4 billion and 3.8 billion years ago, before the Hesperian Epoch, the planet lost most of its atmosphere and became cold and dry. In the new study, the researchers analysed detailed images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently circling the red planet, and concluded that there were later episodes where Mars experienced warm and wet periods. For more information, please visit http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/general/news/Mars_Lakes_20100104/marslakes_20100104.htm

 

3D Reconstruction Service on the Web

Dr. Tomas Pajdla and his team at the Center for Machine Perception, Czech Technical University provide a remote access web service to their 3D reconstruction systems. The service includes useful jobs like camera calibration, camera model conversion, and sparse and dense 3D reconstruction. The service can be accessed through a web browser based interface or by a command line interface based utility. Details of the service are available at: http://ptak.felk.cvut.cz/sfmservice

 

Conferences, Workshops and Public Outreach


EPSC Workshop on Planetary Robotics and Vision Processing

A Workshop on Planetary Robotics and Vision Processing was held during the European Planetary Science Congress 2010 from September 19-25 in Rome, Italy. The workshop was organised by PRoVisG partners and covered key robotics and vision processing areas that must be addressed for future planetary exploration ambitions. More information can be found here.

 

PRoVisG Representation at the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS) 2010

Dr. Mark Woods from Scisys and Ms Karin Shala from the University of Surrey presented papers on PRoVisG related work at i-SAIRAS, from August 29 to September 1, 2010 in Sapporo, Japan. Dr. Woods gave a talk on High-Level Autonomy for Exploration Robotics and Ms. Shala presented results obtained from a Comparative Analysis of Localisation and Mapping Techniques for Planetary Rovers. For more information please visit http://robotics.jaxa.jp/i-sairas2010/index.htm.

 

 

 

ECCV 2010 Workshop on reconstruction and modeling of large-scale 3D virtual environments

http://graphics.cs.ucy.ac.cy/RMLE/

Professor Ron Li from Ohio State University presents PRoVisG at Stanford University

More information can be found here: http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2010/07/multi-million-euro-research-grants-for.html.

 

 

 

ACCV 2010 Workshop on Computer Vision in Vehicle Technology: from Earth to Mars

Today, computer vision technique provides methodology to assist a long-distance explorer project using visual sensing system such as mars rover project. A Workshop on Computer Vision in Vehicle Technology: from Earth to Mars, will be held during the 10th Asian Conference on Computer Vision 2010 from November 8-12 in Queenstown, New Zealand. The workshop is jointly organised by PRoVisG partners and will cover important areas in computer vision vehicle technology like tracking, reconstruction, and prediction. The official page of the workshop is:  http://www.media.imit.chiba-u.jp/CVVT2010/.

 

 

Related Projects


PRoViScout - a new European project on long range scouting/exploration on a terrestrial planet

ProViScout will demonstrate the combination of vision-based autonomous sample identification & sample selection with terrain hazard analysis for a long range scouting/exploration mission on a terrestrial planet. It brings together major European groups currently working on planetary robotic vision, supported by NASA-JPL from USA.

Most robotic planetary space missions performing in situ exploration of the surface and atmosphere for any planetary object outside the Earth involve a means of mobility provided by either a surface vehicle ( rover ) or by aerial vehicles (balloons, aerobots etc.).

Mobile systems are among the most critical of all space missions in requiring a rapid and robust on-site processing and preparation of scientific data to allow efficient operations for a maximum use of their limited lifetime. In future the number and variety of such platforms will require more autonomy than is feasible today, particularly in the autonomous on-site selection of and access to scientific and mission-strategic targets. ProViScout will provide the robotic vision building blocks on board of such future autonomous exploration systems.

PRoViScout Participating Institutions:

For more information please visit http://3dvision.joanneum.at/3DVision/projects/proviscout/overview/ and http://www.proviscout.eu

 

 

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The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 218814 "PRoVisG".

If you wish to receive this PRoVisG newsletter also in the future, please subscribe on http://www.provisg.eu/.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please send an e-mail with subject "unsubscribe" to admin@provisg.eu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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