Sentience is a volumetric perception system for mobile robots, written in C#. It uses webcam-based stereoscopic vision to generate depth maps, and from these create colour 3D voxel models of the environment for obstacle avoidance, navigation and object recognition purposes.

This software has been an ongoing development since 2000. It is currently being tested using the GROK2 mobile robot as a development platform.

Robots which use Sentience:

• Rodney
• Flint
• GROK2

Hot topics:

• Project roadmap
• Why stereo vision ?
• How to compile and run the code
• How to make a stereo camera
• A biologically inspired stereo correspondence algorithm
• Moving through space
• Autonomous Navigation
• Characterising uncertainties in stereoscopic vision
• Stereo camera calibration
• Zen and the art of robot design
• Sensor models
• Occupancy Grids

Background reading:

• Articles on occupancy grids and SLAM algorithms
• The Development of Camera Calibration Methods and Models by T.A. Clarke and J.G. Fryer.
• Probabilistic Robotics, by Sebastian Thrun, Wolfram Burgard and Dieter Fox.