Boundary location from range data using Hough transform

Sonar offers a convenient and economic means of obtaining range data. Howev er, noise in such range data can seriously affect the detection of nearby b oundaries, using the conventional circular back projection method. In this paper, we present a new formulation of the problem whereby the boundary to be detected is identified with the envelop curve of the ellipses defined by the range data. Hough transform is then applied to extract the local tange nts to the boundary. The method was tested on both simulated and real data from polygonal boundaries with very promising results. (C) 2001 Pattern Rec ognition Society. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.