Selective acquisition of 3-D information enough for finding passable free spaces using an active stereo vision system

We address the acquisition of 3D structure around free spaces needed for vehicle navigation using an active stereo vision system that can fixate on any 3D point of the scene. Our method is based on the hypothesis that there are larger and deeper free spaces in the same direction in which there are larger and farther visible objects. We first estimate the direction of promising free spaces by fixating on the infinity point. Then we acquire the partial 3D structure around the free spaces by successively fixating on several 3D points in the estimated direction. We finally present experimental results of the proposed method applied to actual scenes