An autonomous robot localization system based on coded infrared beacons

Abstract

One of the most important problems in autonomous robot guidance is their localization, i.e. determining their physical location within their operating area. For a wheeled autonomous robot that operates on flat rectangular surface, the mostly used localization methods are odometry and triangulation. Odometry is a method based on incremental encoders and its basic flaw is that it accumulates error. On the other hand, triangulation is a method of calculating location of robot relative to 3 landmarks (beacons) located on fixed predetermined positions. This method usually needs measurement of distances between robot and beacons, to be able to calculate robot position. In this paper we describe a different approach based on angle measurement as opposed to distance measurement, we discuss the advantages of this method and we give the details of realization. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.