Autonomous Reflectance Transformation Imaging by a Team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

• Published in: IEEE robotics and automation letters Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 2301 - 2308
• Main Authors: Kratky, Vit, Petracek, Pavel, Spurny, Vojtech, Saska, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.04.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerial systems: applications; Cooperating robots; Historical buildings; Illumination; Multi-robot systems; Reflectance; Unmanned aerial vehicles
• ISSN: 2377-3766; 2377-3766
• DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.2970646

A Reflectance Transformation Imaging technique (RTI) realized by multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with a focus on deployment in difficult to access buildings is presented in this letter. RTI is a computational photographic method that captures a surface shape and color of a subject and enables its interactive re-lighting from any direction in a software viewer, revealing details that are not visible with the naked eye. The input of RTI is a set of images captured by a static camera, each one under illumination from a different known direction. We present an innovative approach applying two multi-rotor UAVs to perform this scanning procedure in locations that are hardly accessible or even inaccessible for people. The proposed system is designed for its safe deployment within real-world scenarios in historical buildings with priceless historical value.