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Unveiling the Potential of iMarkers: Invisible Fiducial Markers for Advanced Robotics

Ali Tourani, Deniz Isinsu Avsar, Hriday Bavle, Jose Luis Sanchez-Lopez, Jan Lagerwall, Holger Voos

TL;DR

iMarkers are presented, innovative, unobtrusive fiducial markers detectable exclusively by robots and AR devices equipped with adequate sensors and detection algorithms, highlighting their adaptability and robustness in the detection and recognition stages.

Abstract

Fiducial markers are widely used in robotics for navigation, object recognition, and scene understanding. While offering significant advantages for robots and Augmented Reality (AR) applications, they often disrupt the visual aesthetics of environments, as they are visible to humans, making them unsuitable for many everyday use cases. To address this gap, this paper presents iMarkers, innovative, unobtrusive fiducial markers detectable exclusively by robots and AR devices equipped with adequate sensors and detection algorithms. These markers offer high flexibility in production, allowing customization of their visibility range and encoding algorithms to suit various demands. The paper also introduces the hardware designs and open-sourced software algorithms developed for detecting iMarkers, highlighting their adaptability and robustness in the detection and recognition stages. Numerous evaluations have demonstrated the effectiveness of iMarkers relative to conventional (printed) and blended fiducial markers and have confirmed their applicability across diverse robotics scenarios.

Unveiling the Potential of iMarkers: Invisible Fiducial Markers for Advanced Robotics

TL;DR

iMarkers are presented, innovative, unobtrusive fiducial markers detectable exclusively by robots and AR devices equipped with adequate sensors and detection algorithms, highlighting their adaptability and robustness in the detection and recognition stages.

Abstract

Fiducial markers are widely used in robotics for navigation, object recognition, and scene understanding. While offering significant advantages for robots and Augmented Reality (AR) applications, they often disrupt the visual aesthetics of environments, as they are visible to humans, making them unsuitable for many everyday use cases. To address this gap, this paper presents iMarkers, innovative, unobtrusive fiducial markers detectable exclusively by robots and AR devices equipped with adequate sensors and detection algorithms. These markers offer high flexibility in production, allowing customization of their visibility range and encoding algorithms to suit various demands. The paper also introduces the hardware designs and open-sourced software algorithms developed for detecting iMarkers, highlighting their adaptability and robustness in the detection and recognition stages. Numerous evaluations have demonstrated the effectiveness of iMarkers relative to conventional (printed) and blended fiducial markers and have confirmed their applicability across diverse robotics scenarios.
Paper Structure (21 sections, 1 equation, 10 figures, 4 tables, 4 algorithms)

This paper contains 21 sections, 1 equation, 10 figures, 4 tables, 4 algorithms.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Literature Review
  3. Ordinary Fiducial Markers
  4. Blended and Unobtrusive Fiducial Markers
  5. Gap Identification
  6. iMarkers: Concept and Comparison
  7. Sensor Design and Detection Strategies
  8. Dual-vision Solution
  9. Dynamic Single-vision Setup
  10. Static Single-vision Setup
  11. Benchmarking and Evaluation
  12. Operational Implementation
  13. Qualitative Evaluation
  14. Detection Range and Pose Accuracy Evaluation
  15. Operation in Degraded Visual Conditions
  16. ...and 6 more sections

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: A legged robot observing an environment labeled with multiple a) printed fiducial markers and b) the proposed iMarkers, highlighted and magnified.
  • Figure 2: The role of CSRs in the design of iMarkers: (a) an iMarker featuring ArUco patterns filled with CSRs, (b) an iMarker displayed next to visible-range CSR particles, illustrating various shades of green for fabrication.
  • Figure 3: Versatility in iMarker production: (a) a $6 \times 6 ~\mathrm{cm^2}$ UV-range iMarker, (b) an IR-range iMarker with the same size, (c) the UV-range iMarker placed on a transparent surface, (d) a $7 \times 7 ~\mathrm{cm^2}$ dark green visible-range iMarker camouflaged with its background.
  • Figure 4: Dual-vision iMarker detection setups using synchronized cameras with circular polarizers and either a cube (a) or plate (b) beamsplitter.
  • Figure 5: Single-vision setup variants designed for iMarker detection, each containing a camera with attached dynamic (a) or static (b) polarizers.
  • ...and 5 more figures