Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition

Visual Place Recognition (VPR) constitutes a pivotal task in the domains of computer vision and robotics. Prevailing VPR methods predominantly employ RGB-based features for query image retrieval and correspondence establishment. Nevertheless, such unimodal visual representations exhibit inherent sus...

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Main Authors: Kunmo Li, Yongsheng Ou, Jian Ning, Fanchang Kong, Haiyang Cai, Haoyang Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4056
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author Kunmo Li
Yongsheng Ou
Jian Ning
Fanchang Kong
Haiyang Cai
Haoyang Li
author_facet Kunmo Li
Yongsheng Ou
Jian Ning
Fanchang Kong
Haiyang Cai
Haoyang Li
author_sort Kunmo Li
collection DOAJ
description Visual Place Recognition (VPR) constitutes a pivotal task in the domains of computer vision and robotics. Prevailing VPR methods predominantly employ RGB-based features for query image retrieval and correspondence establishment. Nevertheless, such unimodal visual representations exhibit inherent susceptibility to environmental variations, inevitably degrading method precision. To address this problem, we propose a robust VPR framework integrating RGB and depth modalities. The architecture employs a coarse-to-fine paradigm, where global retrieval of top-N candidate images is performed using fused multimodal features, followed by a geometric verification of these candidates leveraging depth information. A Discrete Wavelet Transform Fusion (DWTF) module is proposed to generate robust multimodal global descriptors by effectively combining RGB and depth data using discrete wavelet transform. Furthermore, we introduce a Spiking Neuron Graph Matching (SNGM) module, which extracts geometric structure and spatial distance from depth data and employs graph matching for accurate depth feature correspondence. Extensive experiments on several VPR benchmarks demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance while maintaining the best accuracy–efficiency trade-off.
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id doaj-art-dd6e5aedae61447e9d828f8e8d0f55ae
institution Kabale University
issn 1424-8220
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher MDPI AG
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spelling doaj-art-dd6e5aedae61447e9d828f8e8d0f55ae2025-08-20T03:29:02ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-06-012513405610.3390/s25134056Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place RecognitionKunmo Li0Yongsheng Ou1Jian Ning2Fanchang Kong3Haiyang Cai4Haoyang Li5School of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, ChinaSchool of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, ChinaSchool of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaSchool of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, ChinaSchool of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, ChinaSchool of Control Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, ChinaVisual Place Recognition (VPR) constitutes a pivotal task in the domains of computer vision and robotics. Prevailing VPR methods predominantly employ RGB-based features for query image retrieval and correspondence establishment. Nevertheless, such unimodal visual representations exhibit inherent susceptibility to environmental variations, inevitably degrading method precision. To address this problem, we propose a robust VPR framework integrating RGB and depth modalities. The architecture employs a coarse-to-fine paradigm, where global retrieval of top-N candidate images is performed using fused multimodal features, followed by a geometric verification of these candidates leveraging depth information. A Discrete Wavelet Transform Fusion (DWTF) module is proposed to generate robust multimodal global descriptors by effectively combining RGB and depth data using discrete wavelet transform. Furthermore, we introduce a Spiking Neuron Graph Matching (SNGM) module, which extracts geometric structure and spatial distance from depth data and employs graph matching for accurate depth feature correspondence. Extensive experiments on several VPR benchmarks demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance while maintaining the best accuracy–efficiency trade-off.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4056visual place recognitiondepth informationmultimodal feature fusionreranking
spellingShingle Kunmo Li
Yongsheng Ou
Jian Ning
Fanchang Kong
Haiyang Cai
Haoyang Li
Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
Sensors
visual place recognition
depth information
multimodal feature fusion
reranking
title Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
title_full Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
title_fullStr Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
title_full_unstemmed Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
title_short Unified Depth-Guided Feature Fusion and Reranking for Hierarchical Place Recognition
title_sort unified depth guided feature fusion and reranking for hierarchical place recognition
topic visual place recognition
depth information
multimodal feature fusion
reranking
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/13/4056
work_keys_str_mv AT kunmoli unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition
AT yongshengou unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition
AT jianning unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition
AT fanchangkong unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition
AT haiyangcai unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition
AT haoyangli unifieddepthguidedfeaturefusionandrerankingforhierarchicalplacerecognition