CPE 521A: Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots

Homework #4

Due: 10/14/2010

Notes:
1. In the following questions, the subscripts refer to the object being described,
whereas superscripts refer to the coordinate system in which the object is
described. For example, A P refers to the coordinate vector of the point P be ain
the frame (A), B j A is the coordinate vector of the vector j A in the frame (B),
and BA R is the rotation matrix describing the frame (A) in the coordinate system
(B).

Questions:
1. Write formulas for the matrices BA R when (B) is deduced from (A) via a rotation
of angle θ about the axes i A , j A , and k A respectively.
2. Let A T denote the matrix associated with a rigid transformation T in the
coordinate system (A), with
AR A
t
A
T= .
 0 1
Conduct the matrix B T associated with T in the coordinate system (B) as a
function of A T and the rigid transformation separating (A) and (B).
3. Show that the rotation of angle θ about the k axis of the frame (F) can be
represented by
cos θ − sin θ 0
F
P ' = R F P, where R =
sin θ cos θ 0


 0 0 1

4. Determine of the distance to different objects in a scene is an important operation
in machine vision. Here let us consider a stereo camera system. Assume that you
have to cameras and they are place such that their optical axes are parallel to each
other. There is a point P in the scene such that its projects in two images are P1
and P2, respectively. Assuming that you know the location of the cameras and
that the point appears in both images, how can you determine the distance to this
point using perspective projects? Derive the relationship you can use to
determine the distance. If you have freedom to select the location of the cameras,
will you place them close to each other or far from each other? Justify your
answer.
.