Pragmap: Pragmatic approach to rapid tactical mapping
(2009 - 2010)
Team project for University of Southampton
In disaster or conflict scenarios, massive deformation of terrain can render existing maps or satellite imagery useless. In these scenarios, accurate maps can be a matter of life or death; to get supplies into a devastated area, or people out. "Pragmatic Tactical Rapid Mapping" is a project which aimed to prove the feasibility of producing map and routing information from low cost aerial photography.
Photographs of the target terrain are captured using consumer digital cameras from low flying aircraft. These images are rectified to remove perspective distortion and stitched together (using SIFT feature extraction and tracking) to produce a seamless panorama of the surveyed terrain. Various algorithms are combined to classify recognisable features of the terrain, and this is used to estimate the level of accessibility for distinct regions in the images. Once the generated ``map'' has been aligned to the GPS co-ordinate system, routes can be planned to guide vehicles and personnel safely across the terrain. Finally, a graphical application is used to demonstrate the results of this work.
This project has shown that low-cost aerial imagery can be used to assist in logistical planning in the absence of accurate satellite photographs or established maps. Although this project cannot be considered a full implementation of the idea, this report makes suggestions for further work which could be undertaken to improve our results toward an industrial-strength application.
Team
Chris Scutcher (Team Leader)
David Sansome
Chris Jones
Ben Roberts
Screenshots
Pathfinding screenshot
Pathfinding screenshot 2
Terrain Identification Screenshot
Links
