Visual Odometry For Industrial Cable Laying

In order to support broadband network expansion in rural areas, the LAYJET Micro-Rohr Verlegegesellschaft has developed a highly automated cable laying technology based on a Fendt 936 tractor as the carrier vehicle and a milling machine with an integrated cable laying unit [3]. Operating at a speed of approximately 1kph, LAYJET is able to lay cables of several kilometres of length per day along of existing roads. The position of the cable needs to be precisely surveyed for documentation purposes, which is a time consuming and costly process. LAYJET is therefore equipped with a high-end GNSS RTK positioning system (TRIMBLE NetR9). In areas with bad GNSS signal reception or even complete GNSS outage (e.g., roads through a forest) an alternative positioning method is needed. JOANNEUM RESEARCH and the surveying office H¨oppl / Graz have therefore developed a calibrated stereo camera setup triggered by an odometer which allows reconstructing the trajectory of the GNSS antenna using visual odometry (VO).