We present an on-the-move LIDAR-based object detection system for autonomous and semi-autonomous unmanned vehicle systems. In this paper we make several contributions: (i) we describe an algorithm for real-time detection of objects such as doors and stairs in indoor environments; (ii) we describe efficient data structures and algorithms for processing 3D point clouds acquired by laser scanners in a streaming manner, which minimize the memory copying and access. We show qualitative results demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach on runs in an indoor office environment.

Date Published: 7 May 2010
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7692, Unmanned Systems Technology XII, 769203 (7 May 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.849926

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7692:
Unmanned Systems Technology XII
Grant R. Gerhart; Douglas W. Gage; Charles M. Shoemaker, Editor(s)