Actions for Water Detection Based on Sky Reflections

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Water Detection Based on Sky Reflections

Author
Matthies, Larry H.
Published
September 2010.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Rankin, Arturo L.
Online Version

Availability

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Restrictions on Access
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
Summary
This software has been designed to detect water bodies that are out in the open on cross-country terrain at mid- to far-range (approximately 20 100 meters), using imagery acquired from a stereo pair of color cameras mounted on a terrestrial, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). Non-traversable water bodies, such as large puddles, ponds, and lakes, are indirectly detected by detecting reflections of the sky below the horizon in color imagery. The appearance of water bodies in color imagery largely depends on the ratio of light reflected off the water surface to the light coming out of the water body. When a water body is far away, the angle of incidence is large, and the light reflected off the water surface dominates. We have exploited this behavior to detect water bodies out in the open at mid- to far-range. When a water body is detected at far range, a UGV s path planner can begin to look for alternate routes to the goal position sooner, rather than later. As a result, detecting water hazards at far range generally reduces the time required to reach a goal position during autonomous navigation. This software implements a new water detector based on sky reflections that geometrically locates the exact pixel in the sky that is reflecting on a candidate water pixel on the ground, and predicts if the ground pixel is water based on color similarity and local terrain features
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 20100033589.
NPO-47092.
NASA Tech Briefs, September 2010; 37-38.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
Copyright, Distribution under U.S. Government purpose rights.
View MARC record | catkey: 16409697