Three-dimensional vision for law enforcement explosives disposal and building inspection applications.

Holometrics, inc. has over 12 years in R&D and production of scanning laser radar systems that form the basis for a family of 3-D Vision System products. This paper focuses on our on-going activities to field 3-D vision systems that can be mounted on small mobile robots for use in explosive material handling and disposal and/or the inspection of buildings that have been damaged by an earthquake or explosion. In addition, this same configuration can be used in hostage situations in public buildings or in prison riots. The robot/3-D vision system configuration is ideal for supporting law iind fire officials with the geometric features of a scene as well as quantifying the dimensional and spatial relationships of objects and persons in the scene. The vision system uses an infrared laser to accomplish the scene scanning thus enabling it to operate very effectively in total darkness or daylight. We will describe the technical features of these vision systems and then present a number of 3-D images that can be used for the above-mentioned applications.