VSLAM based navigation with Kinect, where do I begin?

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1. You could start with the Kinect and have a look what Patrick has done in the 3D contest. altitude control However as your onboard resources are limited (unless you're able to compute on the pointclouds from the internal DSP, I'm very interested in this, but I have no time) a combination of a regular camera and ultrasonic height measurement will do just fine I guess. We'll probably have some thesis students working on this also.

2. Look at this question + ansers: monocular VSLAM

3. Look at this question: kinect-data-via-router-to-host-pc and my answer: answer

1. ASUS are supposed to be releasing the Xtion PRO Developer Kit, an Primesense SDK based device. It may be easier to obtain than the Primesense SDK. Details are sketchy for a Q2 2011 release. Note that some photos show it without the color sensor (ie. depth only).

2. Have you tried playing with the RGBD-6D-SLAM entry in the recent OpenNI competition?

3. Given bandwidth limitations, you may want to decimate the point cloud. This tutorial may be a good starting point.

I unfortunately wasn't able to connect PrimeSense recently, is it even worth it, or should I stick with the original Kinect?

-> I haven't tried Primesense sensor but I'd say it is better to go with Kinect because there's more potential for it and lot of people are working in this direction (so more available sources). Also primesense programs libraries work with Kinect. I've used Mesa SR3K and SR4K but Kinect outperforms easily in speed, resolution and robustness.