arXiv subjects

Sier Ha

Publications and source records attributed to Sier Ha.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Seamless Outdoor-Indoor Pedestrian Positioning System with GNSS/UWB/IMU Fusion: A Comparison of EKF, FGO, and PF

Accurate and continuous pedestrian positioning across outdoor-indoor environments remains challenging because GNSS, UWB, and inertial PDR are complementary yet individually fragile under signal blockage, multipath, and drift. This paper presents a unified GNSS/UWB/IMU fusion framework for seamless pedestrian localization and provides a controlled comparison of three probabilistic back-ends: an error-state extended Kalman filter, sliding-window factor graph optimization, and a particle filter. The system uses chest-mounted IMU-based PDR as the motion backbone and integrates absolute updates from GNSS outdoors and UWB indoors. To enhance transition robustness and mitigate urban GNSS degradation, we introduce a lightweight map-based feasibility constraint derived from OpenStreetMap building footprints, treating most building interiors as non-navigable while allowing motion inside a designated UWB-instrumented building. The framework is implemented in ROS 2 and runs in real time on a wearable platform, with visualization in Foxglove. We evaluate three scenarios: indoor (UWB+PDR), outdoor (GNSS+PDR), and seamless outdoor-indoor (GNSS+UWB+PDR). Results show that the ESKF provides the most consistent overall performance in our implementation.

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arXiv2025

Lidar Variability: A Novel Dataset and Comparative Study of Solid-State and Spinning Lidars

Lidar technology has been widely employed across various applications, such as robot localization in GNSS-denied environments and 3D reconstruction. Recent advancements have introduced different lidar types, including cost-effective solid-state lidars such as the Livox Avia and Mid-360. The Mid-360, with its dome-like design, is increasingly used in portable mapping and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications due to its low cost, compact size, and reliable performance. However, the lack of datasets that include dome-shaped lidars, such as the Mid-360, alongside other solid-state and spinning lidars significantly hinders the comparative evaluation of novel approaches across platforms. Additionally, performance differences between low-cost solid-state and high-end spinning lidars (e.g., Ouster OS series) remain insufficiently examined, particularly without an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in odometry. To address this gap, we introduce a novel dataset comprising data from multiple lidar types, including the low-cost Livox Avia and the dome-shaped Mid-360, as well as high-end spinning lidars such as the Ouster series. Notably, to the best of our knowledge, no existing dataset comprehensively includes dome-shaped lidars such as Mid-360 alongside both other solid-state and spinning lidars. In addition to the dataset, we provide a benchmark evaluation of state-of-the-art SLAM algorithms applied to this diverse sensor data. Furthermore, we present a quantitative analysis of point cloud registration techniques, specifically point-to-point, point-to-plane, and hybrid methods, using indoor and outdoor data collected from the included lidar systems. The outcomes of this study establish a foundational reference for future research in SLAM and 3D reconstruction across heterogeneous lidar platforms.

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arXiv2025

Enhancing Lidar Point Cloud Sampling via Colorization and Super-Resolution of Lidar Imagery

Recent advancements in lidar technology have led to improved point cloud resolution as well as the generation of 360 degrees, low-resolution images by encoding depth, reflectivity, or near-infrared light within each pixel. These images enable the application of deep learning (DL) approaches, originally developed for RGB images from cameras to lidar-only systems, eliminating other efforts, such as lidar-camera calibration. Compared with conventional RGB images, lidar imagery demonstrates greater robustness in adverse environmental conditions, such as low light and foggy weather. Moreover, the imaging capability addresses the challenges in environments where the geometric information in point clouds may be degraded, such as long corridors, and dense point clouds may be misleading, potentially leading to drift errors. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel framework that leverages DL-based colorization and super-resolution techniques on lidar imagery to extract reliable samples from lidar point clouds for odometry estimation. The enhanced lidar images, enriched with additional information, facilitate improved keypoint detection, which is subsequently employed for more effective point cloud downsampling. The proposed method enhances point cloud registration accuracy and mitigates mismatches arising from insufficient geometric information or misleading extra points. Experimental results indicate that our approach surpasses previous methods, achieving lower translation and rotation errors while using fewer points.

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arXiv2024

Analysis of Deep Learning-Based Colorization and Super-Resolution Techniques for Lidar Imagery

Modern lidar systems can produce not only dense point clouds but also 360 degrees low-resolution images. This advancement facilitates the application of deep learning (DL) techniques initially developed for conventional RGB cameras and simplifies fusion of point cloud data and images without complex processes like lidar-camera calibration. Compared to RGB images from traditional cameras, lidar-generated images show greater robustness under low-light and harsh conditions, such as foggy weather. However, these images typically have lower resolution and often appear overly dark. While various studies have explored DL-based computer vision tasks such as object detection, segmentation, and keypoint detection on lidar imagery, other potentially valuable techniques remain underexplored. This paper provides a comprehensive review and qualitative analysis of DL-based colorization and super-resolution methods applied to lidar imagery. Additionally, we assess the computational performance of these approaches, offering insights into their suitability for downstream robotic and autonomous system applications like odometry and 3D reconstruction.

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arXiv2023

LiDAR-Generated Images Derived Keypoints Assisted Point Cloud Registration Scheme in Odometry Estimation

Keypoint detection and description play a pivotal role in various robotics and autonomous applications including visual odometry (VO), visual navigation, and Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). While a myriad of keypoint detectors and descriptors have been extensively studied in conventional camera images, the effectiveness of these techniques in the context of LiDAR-generated images, i.e. reflectivity and ranges images, has not been assessed. These images have gained attention due to their resilience in adverse conditions such as rain or fog. Additionally, they contain significant textural information that supplements the geometric information provided by LiDAR point clouds in the point cloud registration phase, especially when reliant solely on LiDAR sensors. This addresses the challenge of drift encountered in LiDAR Odometry (LO) within geometrically identical scenarios or where not all the raw point cloud is informative and may even be misleading. This paper aims to analyze the applicability of conventional image key point extractors and descriptors on LiDAR-generated images via a comprehensive quantitative investigation. Moreover, we propose a novel approach to enhance the robustness and reliability of LO. After extracting key points, we proceed to downsample the point cloud, subsequently integrating it into the point cloud registration phase for the purpose of odometry estimation. Our experiment demonstrates that the proposed approach has comparable accuracy but reduced computational overhead, higher odometry publishing rate, and even superior performance in scenarios prone to drift by using the raw point cloud. This, in turn, lays a foundation for subsequent investigations into the integration of LiDAR-generated images with LO. Our code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/TIERS/ws-lidar-as-camera-odom.

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arXiv2023

Comparison of Middlewares in Edge-to-Edge and Edge-to-Cloud Communication for Distributed ROS2 Systems

The increased data transmission and number of devices involved in communications among distributed systems make it challenging yet significantly necessary to have an efficient and reliable networking middleware. In robotics and autonomous systems, the wide application of ROS\,2 brings the possibility of utilizing various networking middlewares together with DDS in ROS\,2 for better communication among edge devices or between edge devices and the cloud. However, there is a lack of comprehensive communication performance comparison of integrating these networking middlewares with ROS\,2. In this study, we provide a quantitative analysis for the communication performance of utilized networking middlewares including MQTT and Zenoh alongside DDS in ROS\,2 among a multiple host system. For a complete and reliable comparison, we calculate the latency and throughput of these middlewares by sending distinct amounts and types of data through different network setups including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and 4G. To further extend the evaluation to real-world application scenarios, we assess the drift error (the position changes) over time caused by these networking middlewares with the robot moving in an identical square-shaped path. Our results show that CycloneDDS performs better under Ethernet while Zenoh performs better under Wi-Fi and 4G. In the actual robot test, the robot moving trajectory drift error over time (96\,s) via Zenoh is the smallest. It is worth noting we have a discussion of the CPU utilization of these networking middlewares and the performance impact caused by enabling the security feature in ROS\,2 at the end of the paper.

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