Homography based Kalman filter for mosaic building. Applications to UAV position estimation

This paper presents a probabilistic framework where uncertainties can be considered in the mosaic building process. It is shown how can be used as an environment representation for an aerial robot. The inter-image relations are modeled by homographies. The paper shows a robust method to compute them in the case of quasi-planar scenes, and also how to estimate the uncertainties in these local image relations. Moreover, the paper describes how, when a loop is present in the sequence of images, the accumulated drift can be compensated and propagated to the rest of the mosaic. In addition, the relations among images in the mosaic can be used, under certain assumptions, to localize the robot.