Circular Convolutional Neural Networks for Panoramic Images and Laser Data

Circular Convolutional Neural Networks (CCNN) are an easy to use alternative to CNNs for input data with wrap-around structure like 360° images and multi-layer laserscans. Although circular convolutions have been used in neural networks before, a detailed description and analysis is still missing. This paper closes this gap by defining circular convolutional and circular transposed convolutional layers as the replacement of their linear counterparts, and by identifying pros and cons of applying CCNNs. We experimentally evaluate their properties using a circular MNIST classification and a Velodyne laserscanner segmentation dataset. For the latter, we replace the convolutional layers in two state-of-the-art networks with the proposed circular convolutional layers. Compared to the standard CNNs, the resulting CCNNs show improved recognition rates in image border areas. This is essential to prevent blind spots in the environmental perception. Further, we present and evaluate how weight transfer can be used to obtain a CCNN from an available, readily trained CNN. Compared to alternative approaches (e.g. input padding), our experiments show benefits of CCNNs and transferred CCNNs regarding simplicity of usage (once the layer implementations are available), performance and runtime for training and inference. Implementations for Keras with Tensorflow are provided online².