Visual Navigation System for a Mobile Robot

Abstract

This paper p r e s e n t s a v i s u a l n a v i g a t i o n system f o r a r o b o t working i n a n u c l e a r power p l a n t . Such a system should have two f u n c t i o n s . One i s t o p r o v i d e a rough environment map o r d i r e c t i o n s towards a g o a l , such a s t u r n i n g l e f t a t t h e second c o r n e r . The o t h e r is t o a v o i d o b s t a c l e s and t o f i n d a passage f o r a cont inuous movement o f t h e r o b o t . The o p e r a t i o n of t h e system is d i v i d e d i n t o two s t a g e s . I n t h e f i r s t s t a g e , a MIL(mu1ti-information l o c a l ) map d e s c r i b i n g t h e s e v e r a l in format ion necessary f o r a s e l f l o c a t i o n measurement i s c r e a t e d i n t e r a c t i v e l y from s t e r e o images c o l l e c t e d d u r i n g remote-cont ro l led n a v i g a t i o n . The second s t a g e i s autonomous n a v i g a t i o n . The r o b o t moves autonomously by u s i n g t h e map w i t h t h e a i d of t h e second f u n c t i o n of t h e system. The system c o n s i s t s of f i v e subsystems : an environment t e a c h i n g subsystem, a s e l f l o c a t i o n measurement subsystem, an o b s t a c l e d e t e c t i o n subsystem, a p a t h p l a n n i n g subsystem, and a p a t h fo l lowing subsystem. The environment t e a c h i n g subsystem c r e a t e s an environment map: t h e s e l f l o c a t i o n measurement subsystem g i v e s t h e l o c a t i o n o f t h e r o b o t by comparing t h e i n p u t image and t h e map i n f o r m a t i o n . The o t h e r t h r e e subsystems s u p p o r t autonomous n a v i g a t i o n . The system h a s been implemented on a mobile r o b o t . Exper imenta l r e s u l t s have shown t h e u s e f u l n e s s of t h e proposed system.