Guidance of a mobile robot using an array of static cameras located in the environment

Abstract

This paper presents a new proposal for positioning and guiding mobile robots in indoor environments. The proposal is based on the information provided by static cameras located in the movement environment. This proposal falls within the scope of what are known as intelligent environments; in this case, the environment is provided with cameras that, once calibrated, allow the position of the robots to be obtained. Based on this information, control orders for the robots can be generated using a radio frequency link. In order to facilitate identification of the robots, even under extremely adverse ambient lighting conditions, a beacon consisting of four circular elements constructed from infrared diodes is mounted on board the robots. In order to identify the beacon, an edge detection process is carried out. This is followed by a process that, based on the algebraic distance, obtains the estimated ellipses associated with each I. Fernández ( ) · M. Mazo ·

Particle filter robot localisation through robust fusion of laser, WiFi, compass, and a network of external cameras

“…Similarly, the MEPHISTO project built 3D models of the environment using highly-coupled cameras, and then used these models for path planning and robot navigation [46]. On the other hand, Fernandez et al [47] used 4 infrared cameras to locate and guide a robot within a small environment. Likewise, Losada et al [48] used an external array of cameras for 3D robot localisation and tracking in a 8 Â 8 m 2 environment.…”

Self-Organized Multi-Camera Network for a Fast and Easy Deployment of Ubiquitous Robots in Unknown Environments

“…Second, as we will see, each camera can support the robot navigation up to a distance of 20 meters approximately. This ensures the coverage of big areas with a low number of camera-agents, as opposed to other ubiquitous robotics works [9,11,15]. Finally, our system does not require any software development or hardware tuning in order to be deployed in a new environment.…”

“…Moreover, they have proposed a navigation control strategy that uses rings of cameras [15], which was tested in a 45 m 2 laboratory with four cameras. All of these works have demonstrated the feasibility of robot navigation supported by external cameras.…”

Multi-agent system for fast deployment of a guide robot in unknown environments

“…Similarly, Intelligent Spaces have been applied successfully on the tasks of robot localization and tracking from single [9] and multiple cameras [10], and also on the task of robot navigation [11], [12], [13]. Regretfully, these proposals do not deal with the problem of easy and fast deployment in social environments, and they are not likely to be appropriate for it: all of them have been designed and validated to work in small places (less than 50 square meters), typically requiring a great number of highly coupled cameras, relying on a centralized processing and coordination, and wired communications.…”