Localization Methods for a Mobile Robot in Urban Environments

Abstract

This paper addresses the problems of designing, building and using mobile robots for urban site modeling. It presents work on both system and algorithmic aspects. On the system level, we have designed and built a functioning autonomous mobile robot. The design extends an existing robotic vehicle with a sensor suite consisting of a digital compass with an integrated inclinometer, a global positioning unit, and a camera mounted on a pan-tilt head. The system is controlled by a distributed software architecture for mobile robot navigation and site modeling. On the algorithmic level, we have developed a localization system that employs two methods. The first method uses odometry, the compass module and the global positioning sensor. An extended Kalman filter integrates the sensor data and keeps track of the uncertainty associated with it. The second method is based on camera pose estimation. It is used when the uncertainty from the first method becomes very large. The pose estimation is done by matching linear features in the image with a simple and compact environmental model. We have demonstrated the functionality of the robot and the localization methods with realworld experiments.

Uav-Based Acquisition of 3d Point Cloud – A Comparison of a Low-Cost Laser Scanner and SFM-Tools

“…However, RTK and DGPS navigation are not robust for signal loss caused by shadowing effects. Due to this fact, an additional improvement of the used navigation solution may be obtained from sensors like a navigation camera in a visual SLAM approach similar to (Georgiev and Allen, 2004). A further aspect for enhancement would be an appropriate magnetometer calibration as described in (Gebre-Egziabher, 2007, Dorveaux et al, 2009, Metni et al, 2006 or improved protection against signal interfering radiation through EMI shields.…”

3D Mapping with Semantic Knowledge

“…A few groups use 3D laser scanners [1,5,11,14,15]. The RESOLV project aimed to model interiors for virtual reality and tele presence [11].…”

“…The AVENUE project develops a robot for modeling urban environments [1], using an expensive CYRAX laser scanner and a feature-based scan matching approach for registration of the 3D scans in a common coordinate system. Nevertheless, in their recent work they do not use data of the laser scanner in the robot control architecture for localization [5]. Triebel et al uses a SICK scanner on a 4 DOF robotic arm mounted on a B21r platform to explore the environment [14].…”

Localization of Mobile Client in Multistory Building using Public Wireless LAN System

“…In indoor localization systems, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are used [5,6]; these systems require the persons or robots to have an RFID reader. Mobile robots estimate their own position and orientation by themselves using a dead-reckoning method and image recognition [7]. In indoor experiments, it is difficult to estimate the global position and orientation of an object uniquely because of the symmetrical structure of buildings.…”