Multi-camera Systems for Navigation and Robotic Systems and Surveillance

During the last decade, vision systems established themselves as the standard
in their own right and as one of the most efficient sensorial systems in industrial
and everyday applications. Due to the fact that vision provides several vital attributes,
many applications such as video surveillance, mobile robot navigation
and immersive conference rooms to name a few, show preferences to pervasive
intelligent camera networks. Furthermore, it is apparent that one of the most
challenging problems is the human-robot interaction inside the working area
of a robot. Robots working in an indoor environment must be able to navigate
seamlessly in the confined space and to avoid obstacles and humans in both
static and dynamic environments. To achieve that, the vision system should
enable a robust and effective 3D mapping of the working environment. Both of
these fields, multi-camera systems and environmental mapping, are the two pillars
of this PhD dissertation. Multi-camera systems represent a multi-disciplinary
field of knowledge, which provides several algorithmic opportunities for innovative
development of applications both for surveillance and navigation of
robotic systems.