Multisensor placement in 3D environments via visibility estimation and derivative-free optimization

François-Michel De Rainville, Jean-Philippe Mercier, Christian Gagné, Philippe Giguère, Denis Laurendeau

Abstract: This paper proposes a complete system for robotic sensor placement in initially unknown arbitrary three-dimensional environments. The system uses a novel approach for computing the quality of acquisition of a mobile sensor group in such environments. The quality of acquisition is based on a geometric model of a camera which allows accurate sensor models and simple occlusion computation. The proposed system combines this new metric with a global derivative-free optimization algorithm to find simultaneously the number of sensors and their configuration to sense accordingly the environment. The presented framework compares favourably with current techniques working in two-dimensional environments. Furthermore, simulation and experimental results demonstrate the ability of the system to cope with full three-dimensional environments, a domain still unexplored by previous methods.