Development of information collection system with omnidirectional images

A robot is an important tool for collecting data such as camera images at a remote site. These camera images are also used for robot operation. In this paper our aim is to develop an information collection system that can collect environmental information efficiently and can reduce the operational load for controlling a robot by realizing reduction of a travelling distance without reducing amount of collected information. An omnidirectional camera unit is used to capture an omnidirectional image around a robot at a time. When we need to access information around the place where the robot has already passed by at least once, the robot does not need to return to the place to get the information but it can be collected from stored omnidirectional images by choosing the point of gaze and gaze direction that indicate the place where an operator wants to look at. The conducted experiments show effectiveness of the developed system.