Development of an omnidirectional vision system for environment perception

In this paper, we describe a portable Omnidirectional Vision System for Environment Perception (OVSEP) with 5 Degrees of Freedom (DOFs). OVSEP has a modular design and it is equipped with three main components: hardware, control architecture and visual processing part (omnidirectional vision and stereovision). A face detection algorithm and a method for 3D reconstruction have been used to evaluate the performance of OVSEP. Experimental results show that OVSEP was capable of detecting and tracking human faces in real time, correctly positioning stereo vision, and performing 3D reconstruction. Thus OVSEP can provide detailed information of surrounding environment in real time for the study of humanoid robot falling.