Precise outline matching criteria for target pose estimation and odometry from stereo video

We introduce and investigate several criteria for matching the outer contour generated by a model of the manipulation target against the image data captured with a stereo camera rig. The more complex criteria are intended for the initial stage of scene analysis, to provide pose and location estimation for path planning, and the faster methods can be used in real-time, e.g. for providing feedback during visual servoing. We exemplify the methodology for the case of cylinder pose estimation, which is an often analyzed case in the literature, and we first investigate the pose estimation performance using simulated images, where the ground truth is perfectly known. Experimental results using real video sequences captured from the mobile manipulator iMoro are showing very good matching for target pose estimation, in agreement with results on simulated data. The visual odometry results using the pose estimation over successive frames show a smooth path estimation and a simulation study infers small localization errors along the path.