Survey on Datasets for Perception in Unstructured Outdoor Environments

TL;DR

This survey reviews and compares publicly available perception datasets for unstructured outdoor environments in field robotics, highlighting their characteristics and the importance of compatible annotations for effective application.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive categorization and comparison of datasets, aiding practitioners in selecting suitable datasets and emphasizing the need for consistent annotation policies.

Findings

Datasets vary significantly in characteristics and annotations.

Choosing compatible datasets improves perception system development.

The survey guides dataset selection for field robotics applications.

Abstract

Perception is an essential component of pipelines in field robotics. In this survey, we quantitatively compare publicly available datasets available in unstructured outdoor environments. We focus on datasets for common perception tasks in field robotics. Our survey categorizes and compares available research datasets. This survey also reports on relevant dataset characteristics to help practitioners determine which dataset fits best for their own application. We believe more consideration should be taken in choosing compatible annotation policies across the datasets in unstructured outdoor environments.