Feature Extraction and Matching of Humanoid-Eye Binocular Images Based on SUSAN-SIFT Algorithm.

Imitating the visual characteristics of human eyes is one of the important tasks of digital image processing and computer vision. Feature correspondence of humanoid-eye binocular images is a prerequisite for obtaining the fused image. Human eyes are more sensitive to edge, because it contains much information. However, existing matching methods usually fail in producing enough edge corresponding pairs for humanoid-eye images because of viewpoint and view direction differences. To this end, we propose a novel and effective feature matching algorithm based on edge points. The proposed method consists of four steps. First, the SUSAN operator is employed to detect features, for its outstanding edge feature extraction capability. Second, the input image is constructed into a multi-scale structure based on image pyramid theory, which is then used to compute simplified SIFT descriptors for all feature points. Third, a novel multi-scale descriptor is constructed, by stitching the simplified SIFT descriptor of each layer. Finally, the similarity of multi-scale descriptors is measured by bidirectional matching, and the obtained preliminary matches are refined by subsequent procedures, to achieve accurate matching results. We respectively conduct qualitative and quantitative experiments, which demonstrate that our method can robustly match feature points in humanoid-eye binocular image pairs, and achieve favorable performance under illumination changes compared to the state-of-the-art.

Actuation delay compensation of robots in semi-physical test.

In general, the traditional spacecraft semi-physical docking tests include the evaluation of docking and separation performance. However, these tests often rely on "specific" equipment, such as specially designed actuators and fast-response hydraulic systems, to meet the stringent dynamic response requirements of semi-physical testing. In this paper, a novel docking test platform is designed based on a general-purpose industrial manipulator using 3-D force and 3-D torque sensors. Different from the traditional solution, this novel platform is well-assembled and cost-effective. Furthermore, an actuation delay compensation method is introduced to improve the performance. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated using simulations. The results show that the novel method is with promising performance in terms of actuation delay compensation.