Vision based localization stereo rig calibration and rectification

Lately, the 3D applications have become a more popular topic in robotics, computer vision or augmented reality. Using cameras and computer vision techniques, it is possible to obtain accurate 3D models of large-scale environments, such as cities. Furthermore, the cameras are low-cost, non-intrusive sensors compared to other sensors such as laser scanners and also offer rich information about the environment. One of the applications of great interest in this way is the vision-based localization in a prior 3D map. Robots need to perform tasks in the environment autonomously, and for this purpose, is very important to know precisely the location of the robot in the map. In the same way, providing accurate information about the location and spatial orientation of the user in a large-scale environment can be of benefit for those who suffer from visual impairment problems. A safe and autonomous navigation in unknown or known environments can be a great challenge for those who are blind or are visually impaired. Most of the commercial solutions for visually impaired localization and navigation assistance are based on the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS), which are not suitable enough for the visually impaired community in urban-environments. The errors are about of the order of several meters and there are also other problems such GPS signal loss or line-of-sight restrictions. Thus, taking into consideration all of the above mentioned problems, it is important to do further research on new more robust and accurate localization systems.