Surface reconstruction (of rough terrain) in range image shadows

Abstract

The common approach to estimating the surface elevation at a given point is based on weighted averaging of the elevations of the neighboring points. This approach often yields incorrect results for surface reconstruction in range image shadows; the elevation of the shadow region is often overestimated such that it could not have been occluded in the first place. In this letter we propose an algorithm that does not yield such incorrect results, and preserves the statistical properties of the surface. The method is best suited for reconstruction of random stationary surfaces, such as rough terrain. It has applications in off-road autonomous land navigation.