Simultaneous localization assistance for mobile robot navigation in real, populated environments

Abstract

Developing autonomous mobile robots that can coexist with human in populated environments is still considered a big challenge. To address this problem the authors propose a novel scheme to assist mobile robots by providing localization information externally. This scheme combines the autonomous navigation and target tracking research fields to arrive at a structured assistance system for autonomous mobile robots. In the proposed scheme, the environment is sensed using a laser range finder and camera based sensor unit. Using Rao-Blackwellized particle filter technique, the robots that need assistance are continuously tracked. In contrast with conventional laser range finder based tracking systems, the placement of sensor is changed to a level above average human height and the mobile robots are modified by attaching a cylindrical pole. The experiments show the validity of the proposed scheme for simultaneous localization assistance for multiple mobile robots. Two mobile robots were simultaneously navigated in given trajectories using assistance data, successfully. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.