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NeuroLoc: Encoding Navigation Cells for 6-DOF Camera Localization (2505.01113v1)

Published 2 May 2025 in cs.RO, cs.CV, and cs.NE

Abstract: Recently, camera localization has been widely adopted in autonomous robotic navigation due to its efficiency and convenience. However, autonomous navigation in unknown environments often suffers from scene ambiguity, environmental disturbances, and dynamic object transformation in camera localization. To address this problem, inspired by the biological brain navigation mechanism (such as grid cells, place cells, and head direction cells), we propose a novel neurobiological camera location method, namely NeuroLoc. Firstly, we designed a Hebbian learning module driven by place cells to save and replay historical information, aiming to restore the details of historical representations and solve the issue of scene fuzziness. Secondly, we utilized the head direction cell-inspired internal direction learning as multi-head attention embedding to help restore the true orientation in similar scenes. Finally, we added a 3D grid center prediction in the pose regression module to reduce the final wrong prediction. We evaluate the proposed NeuroLoc on commonly used benchmark indoor and outdoor datasets. The experimental results show that our NeuroLoc can enhance the robustness in complex environments and improve the performance of pose regression by using only a single image.

Summary

  • The paper introduces NeuroLoc, a novel model for robust 6-DOF camera localization inspired by biological navigation cells like grid and place cells.
  • NeuroLoc utilizes a Hebbian learning module, a head direction-inspired attention mechanism, and 3D grid center prediction to enhance pose estimation from a single image.
  • Experimental results on the 7 Scenes and Oxford RobotCar datasets show NeuroLoc improves accuracy and robustness in indoor and challenging outdoor environments compared to existing methods.

NeuroLoc: Encoding Navigation Cells for 6-DOF Camera Localization

This paper explores a novel approach to camera localization, a critical task in machine vision, particularly for applications such as autonomous driving, robotic navigation, and augmented reality. The paper presents NeuroLoc, an inventive model inspired by the neurobiological navigation mechanisms in the animal brain, specifically grid cells, place cells, and head direction cells. The primary focus is addressing common challenges such as scene ambiguity, environmental disturbances, and dynamic object transformations that typically hinder camera localization in unfamiliar environments.

Model Architecture and Features

NeuroLoc incorporates three fundamental components aimed at enhancing the robustness and efficiency of camera localization tasks using a single image:

  1. Hebbian Learning Module: This segment of the model simulates place cells and employs Hebbian learning principles to store and replay historical information, which aids in mitigating scene fuzziness.
  2. Head Direction Cell-Inspired Attention Mechanism: Utilized to embed multi-head attention, this component draws inspiration from head direction cells to accurately restore orientation in similar scenes.
  3. 3D Grid Center Prediction: This module adopts grid cell principles by incorporating a prediction mechanism for the 3D grid center within the pose regression framework, thereby reducing erroneous predictions.

This architecture is designed to predict absolute camera poses and 3D grid positions using the intrinsic relationships between spatial features and camera movement, evidenced through robust performance across diverse indoor and outdoor scenarios.

Experimental Results

The NeuroLoc model was evaluated using two benchmark datasets: the 7 Scenes dataset with its indoor environment, and the Oxford RobotCar dataset featuring outdoor challenges. NeuroLoc demonstrated noticeable improvements in positioning robustness and accuracy:

  • 7 Scenes Dataset: NeuroLoc achieved superior performance in environments plagued by textureless surfaces and repetitive structures, enhancing pose prediction (average position/orientation error reduction across various environments).
  • Oxford RobotCar Dataset: NeuroLoc provided enhanced accuracy in complex outdoor scenarios, showcasing improved median position and orientation error rates compared to existing models like PoseNet+ and MapNet, thereby evidencing its utility in environments with dynamic objects and varying light conditions.

Implications and Future Directions

The NeuroLoc model presents significant advancements in camera localization by enabling single-image-based robust pose prediction. It leverages biologically inspired mechanisms, offering potential improvements in AI systems tasked with complex navigation tasks in dynamic and ambiguous environments.

The implications extend to practical applications in autonomous navigation systems, where understanding spatial contexts efficiently under changing conditions is pivotal. Theoretically, NeuroLoc opens avenues for exploring further integration of neurobiological concepts into AI models, potentially improving adaptability and accuracy.

Future research could investigate additional mechanisms from biological navigation cells to refine the robustness and versatility of camera localization techniques further. Enhancements could involve exploring novel neural architectures or refining existing modules to tackle more diverse environmental challenges, broadening AI's capability in real-world navigation scenarios.

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