A multi-sensorial integration scheme to help mobile robot navigation through obstacle recognition

This paper proposes an external sensing system based on a multisensor integration scheme that includes a ring of sixteen ultrasonic transducers and a single CCD camera. This system is supposed to be installed onboard a mobile robot to give it the capability of recognizing obstacles present in its path. The system operation is described, and examples of object recognition are presented. How this sensing system can be inserted in agent-based control architectures is also exemplified. Features like the non-intensive onboard computation and the low image-acquiring rate associated to the proposed sensing system are emphasized. As a conclusion, it is claimed that the system proposed is a very powerful one to help the robot to make a decision on how to navigate when facing a certain obstacle.