Date of Award

3-22-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Science

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Scott L. Nykl, PhD.

Abstract

Modern militaries rely upon remote image sensors for real-time intelligence. A typical remote system consists of an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, with an attached camera. A video stream is sent from the UAV, through a bandwidth-constrained satellite connection, to an intelligence processing unit. In this research, an upgrade to this method of collection is proposed. A set of synthetic images of a scene captured by a UAV in a virtual environment is sent to a pipeline of computer vision algorithms, collectively known as Structure from Motion. The output of Structure from Motion, a three-dimensional model, is then assessed in a 3D virtual world as a possible replacement for the images from which it was created. This study shows Structure from Motion results from a modifiable spiral flight path and compares the geoaccuracy of each result. A flattening of height is observed, and an automated compensation for this flattening is performed. Each reconstruction is also compressed, and the size of the compression is compared with the compressed size of the images from which it was created. A reduction of 49-60% of required space is shown.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENG-MS-18-M-055

DTIC Accession Number

AD1056206

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