Mapping Areas using Computer Vision Algorithms and Drones

TL;DR

This paper presents Drone Map Creator, a system that uses computer vision and drones to automatically generate maps by stitching images, demonstrating successful image stitching despite environmental challenges.

Contribution

Introduces Drone Map Creator, a novel system combining SURF features and Hessian matrix optimization for drone-based map creation.

Findings

Successful image stitching along video sequences

Effective use of SURF for key point detection

Robustness to environmental variations

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to implement a system, titled as Drone Map Creator (DMC) using Computer Vision techniques. DMC can process visual information from an HD camera in a drone and automatically create a map by stitching together visual information captured by a drone. The proposed approach employs the Speeded up robust features (SURF) method to detect the key points for each image frame; then the corresponding points between the frames are identified by maximizing the determinant of a Hessian matrix. Finally, two images are stitched together by using the identified points. Our results show that despite some limitations from the external environment, we could have successfully stitched images together along video sequences.