Embedded multi-processor system-on-programmable chip for smart camera pose estimation using nonlinear optimization methods

The PanoraMOS prototype is a complete localization system targeting Simultaneous Localization and Mapping applications. It is a panoramic camera that uses a single rotating linear sensor to capture cylindrical panoramic images at up to 3 frames per second. A complete localization algorithm has been implemented into the hardware architecture of the system. It has the ability to estimate its 3D pose in an indoor or an outdoor environment. This estimation is performed using a feature extractor and the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm with the Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm to perform detection. In this paper, we present the whole system particularly emphasize the localization algorithm and its implementation on a hardware architecture which is our main contribution. The implementation was done on a Multi-Processor System-on-Chip architecture. We present both software and hardware implementations with performance results on an ALTERA System-on-Programmable Chip target. The experimental results including processing times and application speed up show that our homogeneous network of processors is efficient for embedding the proposed image processing application.