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Sign Understanding in Support of Autonomous Navigation (SUSAN)

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Contract: DAAH0103CR196
Agency Tracking Number: 02SB1-0202
Amount: $375,642.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: N/A
Award Year: 2003
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
625 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
DUNS: 115243701
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Magnus Snorrason
 Principal Scientist
 (617) 491-3474
 mss@cra.com
Business Contact
 Paul Gonsalves
Title: Vice President
Phone: (617) 491-3474
Email: pgonsalves@cra.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Mobile robots currently cannot detect and read arbitrary signs. Existing work on road sign recognition is template based, limiting the detectable signs to a specific set. This is a major hindrance to mobile robot usability, since they cannot be taskedusing directions that are intuitive to humans. It also limits their ability to report their position relative to intuitive landmarks.We propose to develop a system for Sign Understanding in Support of Autonomous Navigation (SUSAN), that detects signs from various cues common to signs (vivid colors, compact shape, text or other symbols) and from contextual cues (placement with respect toroads, walls, doors, poles, etc.). In Phase II, we will enhance our Phase I color and text-based sign detection and add adaptation for a variety of lighting and background conditions (both indoors and outdoors). Our partial 3D scene modeling module willbias detectors to specific parts of the scene based on shape from motion, 3D line extraction, vertical surface and vanishing point detection. Our tracking module will accumulate evidence from tracking potential signs in time. We will demonstrateperformance on an indoor mobile robot and, in collaboration with PercepTek, we will demonstrate SUSAN on the MARS unmanned ground vehicle.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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