CPS 296.1
Introduction to Computer Vision
Spring 2006

Project Guidelines

Introduction

Students taking this course for credit will work on a computer vision project. Projects can be done independently or in groups, but group projects are strongly encouraged.

This year's projects will center around the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) to be held June 10-12 in Michigan. Financial awards are given to the best teams, and travel expenses are paid. However, participation in the competition is optional.

Computer vision resources from the web may be useful in your project. Please also look at and contribute to the project information page.

Projects

An electric-propulsion mini-hummer (a golf cart with a hummer-shaped body) has been donated by SAIC to the ME department, and will be the competing vehicle. ME students will equip this with a vibration-damped platform for the vision sensors. Sensors will include a four-camera stereo system made by Tyzx, also coming from SAIC. Two cameras are for far field, two for near field. These are black-and-white. Other sensors (e.g., a color camera, sonars) may be added if useful.

The plan is to compete at least in the design and navigation challenges, but possibly in the autonomous challenge as well. Projects are designed for that contingency. The competition is annual, so we can compete next year in events where we are not able to compete this year.

Here are possible projects. Additional or alternative projects will be discussed in class.

• Competition strategy and design of the sensing system architecture
• Performance evaluation and optimization of the Tyzx stereo system
• Stereo-based obstacle detection and avoidance
• Matching GPS and vision
• GPS/compass navigation and path planning
• Far/near range map integration
• Terrain classification
• Lane mark following from color vision (and stereo if useful)

Students will also present a selection of DARPA tech paper(s), describing systems that competed in the recent DARPA Grand Challenge for autonomous vehicles, and IGVC tech papers, which serve a similar role for the IGVC.

Project Schedule

By the beginning of class on the following deadlines, each groups sends a single PDF file by email to tomasi@cs.duke.edu.

• Jan 24: One- or two-page project description with the following items: goal, rationale, task partition among group members, interactions with other projects, timeline, bibliography. 15 percent of project grade.
• Feb 28: Intermediate status report: Findings, difficulties, results. Discuss as many cases/images as possible in detail. This report should be at least five pages long. 25 percent of project grade.
• Mar 28: Draft of the final report. This should be in the format of a technical paper. Use the DARPA tech paper(s) for level, style and format. This draft should be at least ten pages long, and should differ from the final version only in that some data may be missing, and some minor editing may be needed. 30 percent of project grade.
• Apr 13: Final report. Complete, cleaned-up version of the draft. 30 percent of project grade.

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