Three-dimensional temperature distribution mapping by generative adversarial network in low light environment using thermography

Abstract

In this study, we propose a new framework to perform visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with RGB images artificially generated from thermal images in low light environments where an optical camera cannot be applied. We applied contrastive unpaired translation (CUT) and enhanced generative adversarial network for super-resolution (ESRGAN), which are image translation methods to generate a clear realistic RGB image from a thermal image. Oriented FAST and rotated BRIEF (ORB)-SLAM was performed using the super-resolution fake RGB image to generate a 3D point cloud. Experimental results showed that our thermography-based visual SLAM could generate a 3D temperature distribution map in the low light environment.