Super-resolution for flash LADAR data

Shuowen Hu; S. Susan Young; Tsai Hong; Joseph P. Reynolds; Keith Krapels; Brian Miller; Jim Thomas; Oanh Nguyen

doi:10.1117/12.818801

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22 April 2009 Super-resolution for flash LADAR data

Shuowen Hu, S. Susan Young, Tsai Hong, Joseph P. Reynolds, Keith Krapels, Brian Miller, Jim Thomas, Oanh Nguyen

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Proceedings Volume 7300, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XX; 73000B (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818801
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2009, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Flash laser detection and ranging (LADAR) systems are increasingly used in robotics applications for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance. Their compact size, high frame rate, wide field of view, and low cost are key advantages over traditional scanning LADAR devices. However, these benefits are achieved at the cost of spatial resolution. Super-resolution enhancement can be applied to improve the resolution of flash LADAR devices, making them ideal for small robotics applications. Previous work by Rosenbush et al. applied the super-resolution algorithm of Vandewalle et al. to flash LADAR data, and observed quantitative improvement in image quality in terms of number of edges detected. This study uses the super-resolution algorithm of Young et al. to enhance the resolution of range data acquired with a SwissRanger SR-3000 flash LADAR camera. To improve the accuracy of sub-pixel shift estimation, a wavelet preprocessing stage was developed and applied to flash LADAR imagery. The authors used the triangle orientation discrimination (TOD) methodology for a subjective evaluation of the performance improvement (measured in terms of probability of target discrimination and subject response times) achieved with super-resolution. Super-resolution of flash LADAR imagery resulted in superior probabilities of target discrimination at the all investigated ranges while reducing subject response times.

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Shuowen Hu, S. Susan Young, Tsai Hong, Joseph P. Reynolds, Keith Krapels, Brian Miller, Jim Thomas, and Oanh Nguyen "Super-resolution for flash LADAR data", Proc. SPIE 7300, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XX, 73000B (22 April 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818801

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