Noise Robust Particle Event Velocimetry with A Kalman Filter-Based Tracking

Date of Award

5-5-2024

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor/Chair

Keigo Hirakawa

Abstract

Event-based pixel sensors asynchronously report changes in log-intensity in microsecond-order resolution. Its exceptional speed, cost effectiveness, and sparse event stream makes it an attractive imaging modality for particle tracking velocimetry. In this work, we propose a causal Kalman filter-based particle event velocimetry (KF-PEV). Using the Kalman filter model to track the events generated by the particles seeded in the flow medium, KF-PEV yields the linear least squares estimate of the particle track velocities corresponding to the flow vector field. KF-PEV processes events in a computationally efficient and streaming manner (i.e.~causal and iteratively updating). Our simulation-based benchmarking study with synthetic particle event data confirms that the proposed KF-PEV outperforms the conventional frame-based (FB) particle image/tracking velocimetry (PIV/PTV) as well as the state-of-the-art event-based (EB) particle velocimetry methods. In a real-world water tunnel event-based sensor data experiment performed on what we believe to be the widest field view ever reported, KF-PEV accurately predicted the expected flow field of the SD7003 wing, including details such as the lower velocity in the wake and the flow separation around the underside of an angled wing.

Keywords

PEV, PIV, PTV, KF-PEV, Particle Velocimetry, Event-Based, Event Camera

Rights Statement

Copyright 2024, author

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