3D Visualisation of Robot Sensor Data

Our rescue robot has sensors that can create 3D representations of their surroundings. In a rescue, it is helpful for the incident commander to have a graphical visualisation of the data so that he or she can reconstruct the disaster site. The School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Centre for Health Informatics have a display facility (VISLAB) that permits users to visualise data in three dimensions using stereo projection onto a large 'wedge' screen.

This project can be approached in two stages. In the first stage, the data from the robot are collected off-line and programs are written to create a 3D reconstruction of the robot's surroundings to be viewed in the visualisation laboratory. In the second stage we have the robot transmit its sensor data to the VISLAB computers for display in real-time.

This project requires a good knowledge of computer graphics and will also require the student to learn about sensors such as stereo cameras, laser range finders and other 3D imaging devices. Some knowledge of networking and compression techniques will be useful for the second stage of the project.