Integrating a computational model and a run time system for image processing on a UAV

Abstract

Recently substantial research has been devoted to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). One of a UAV's most demanding subsystem is vision. The vision subsystem must dynamically combine different algorithms as the UAVs goal and surrounding change. To fully utilize the available hardware, a run time system must be able to vary the quality and the size of regions the algorithms are applied to, as the number of image processing tasks changes. To allow this the run time system and the underlying computational model must be integrated. In this paper we present a computational model suitable for integration with a run time system. The computational model is called Image Processing Data Flow Graph (IP-DFG). IP-DFG has been developed for modeling of complex image processing algorithms. IP-DFG is based on data flow graphs, but has been extended with hierarchy and new rules for token consumption, which makes the computational model more flexible and more suitable for human interaction. In this paper we also show that IP-DFGs are suitable for modelling expressions, including data dependent decisions and iterations, which are common in complex image processing algorithms.