Real-time intuitive terrain modeling by mapping video images onto a texture database

Abstract

Mobile robot operators must make rapid decisions based on information about the robot's surrounding environment. Thus, it is essential that they receive information regarding the local terrain in real time. This paper describes an intuitive terrain modeling method and a generation algorithm for a texture database (TDB). Firstly, we integrate the large-scale 3D point clouds obtained from sensors into a node-based terrain mesh in CPU. Subsequently, we program a graphics processing unit to generate the TDB by mapping the triangles in the terrain mesh onto the captured video images. © 2014 Springer-Verlag.