Place Recognition with Event-based Cameras and a Neural Implementation of SeqSLAM
This work addresses the problem of enabling robust navigation for high-speed robots in challenging environments, representing incremental progress in adapting existing methods to new sensor technology.
The paper tackles the challenge of adapting place recognition algorithms for event-based cameras to enable high-speed robotic navigation under difficult lighting conditions, presenting ongoing research on two approaches: suitable loop closure techniques and efficient neural implementations for high frame rates using neuromorphic hardware.
Event-based cameras offer much potential to the fields of robotics and computer vision, in part due to their large dynamic range and extremely high "frame rates". These attributes make them, at least in theory, particularly suitable for enabling tasks like navigation and mapping on high speed robotic platforms under challenging lighting conditions, a task which has been particularly challenging for traditional algorithms and camera sensors. Before these tasks become feasible however, progress must be made towards adapting and innovating current RGB-camera-based algorithms to work with event-based cameras. In this paper we present ongoing research investigating two distinct approaches to incorporating event-based cameras for robotic navigation: the investigation of suitable place recognition / loop closure techniques, and the development of efficient neural implementations of place recognition techniques that enable the possibility of place recognition using event-based cameras at very high frame rates using neuromorphic computing hardware.