On-the-Fly 3D Modeling

Systems & Technology Research (STR) proposes to develop automated near real-time 3D reconstruction techniques from narrow field-of-view video imagery for processing on board small unmanned aerial systems.STR will conduct trade studies in Phase I, using our state-of-the-art 3D modeling pipeline, to design a 3D modeling capability that satisfies USSOCOMs requirements and to identify accuracy/efficiency tradeoffs for constructing a prototype capability in Phase II.STRs 3D processing pipeline consists of functions that perform (1) camera calibration, (2) stereo depth estimation, (3) probabilistic volumetric reconstruction, and (4) mesh exporting and texture mapping.STR will explore efficiency improvements to these algorithms as well as porting of the end-to-end processing to an embedded processing platform for meeting SWAP and latency requirements, without sacrificing model accuracy and fidelity.STRs 3D modeling capabilities and expertise focus on not only practical implementation of the technology, but on robust 3D scene reconstruction that works in challenging operating conditions of occlusion, shadowing and dynamic object motion in the scene.