Introduction

The objective of Stereoscopic Imaging for Slow-Moving Autonomous Vehicle,
SISAV, is to develop a system that can provide an accurate terrain map to be
used for navigating an autonomous vehicle. A well known example of this is

the Mars Exploration Rovers engineered by NASA, which can be seen here. The

system will use two digital cameras to perform the stereoscopic imaging to obtain

a terrain map of the objects in front of the cameras. This map will be used by the

control algorithm running the autonomous vehicle to determine the direction in

which to move. The system will have two modes of operation: calibrate and run.

Calibration mode involves calculating the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of each

camera by using a calibration rig with known geometry and easily detectable features.

Run mode involves sending a signal to have the cameras take a set of pictures and
processing the images to obtain the terrain map and distances to the objects,
and then using this information to navigate an autonomous vehicle.