Multi-camera parallel tracking and mapping with non-overlapping fields of view

Abstract

A novel real-time pose estimation system is presented for solving the visual simultaneous localization and mapping problem using a rigid set of central cameras arranged such that there is no overlap in their fields-of-view. A new parameterization for point feature position using a spherical coordinate update is formulated which isolates system parameters dependent on global scale, allowing the shape parameters of the system to converge despite the scale remaining uncertain. Furthermore, an initialization scheme is proposed from which the optimization will converge accurately using only the measurements from the cameras at the first time step. The algorithm is implemented and verified in experiments with a camera cluster constructed using multiple perspective cameras mounted on a multirotor aerial vehicle and augmented with tracking markers to collect high-precision ground-truth motion measurements from an optical indoor positioning system. The accuracy and performance of the proposed pose estimation system are confirmed for various motion profiles in both indoor and challenging outdoor environments, despite no overlap in the camera fields-of-view.