Maneuvering Aid for Large Vehicle using Omnidirectional Cameras

Maneuvering large vehicles like trucks is a challenging task because their drivers often cannot see the closest surrounding area of the vehicle. This paper presents a system providing the driver with a bird's-eye view of the surrounding area on a single display. This view is constructed by stitching together cutouts from two omnidirectional images acquired by catadioptric cameras, which are placed below the side mirrors. The geometry of the cameras is analyzed with respect to the formation of blind spots. We illustrate how to select the cutouts in order to eliminate completely the blind spots in the bird's-eye view