• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.713-721
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• 2008

This paper presents the robust velocity estimation of an omnidirectional mobile robot using a polygonal array of optical mice that are installed at the bottom of the mobile robot. First, the velocity kinematics from a mobile robot to an array of optical mice is derived as an overdetermined linear system. The least squares velocity estimate of a mobile robot is then obtained, which becomes the same as the simple average for a regular polygonal arrangement of optical mice. Next, several practical issues that need be addressed for the use of the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation using optical mice are investigated, which include measurement noises, partial malfunctions, and imperfect installation. Finally, experimental results with different number of optical mice and under different floor surface conditions are given to demonstrate the validity and performance of the proposed least squares mobile robot velocity estimation method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.386-394
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• 2011

This paper is concerned with the application of the vision control scheme for robot's point placement task in discontinuous trajectory caused by obstacle. The proposed vision control scheme consists of four models, which are the robot's kinematic model, vision system model, 6-parameters estimation model, and robot's joint angles estimation model. For this study, the discontinuous trajectory by obstacle is divided into two obstacle regions. Each obstacle region consists of 3 cases, according to the variation of number of cameras that can not acquire the vision data. Then, the effects of number of cameras on the proposed robot's vision control scheme are investigated in each obstacle region. Finally, the practicality of the proposed robot's vision control scheme is demonstrated experimentally by performing the robot's point placement task in discontinuous trajectory by obstacle.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07b
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• pp.1231-1233
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• 1996

This paper presents an estimation of relative distance and angle from a mobile robot to an object. From the number of pulses required to make the mobile robot move to the feature point, we find the relative distance and angle between the mobile robot and the object. The proposed method shows a practical way of measuring the relative distance and angle between the mobile robot and an object without setting up real world coordinate system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.1294-1301
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• 2008

Under passive RFID environment, this paper presents a new localization of a mobile robot traversing over the floor covered with tags, which is superior to existing methods in terms of estimation performance and cost effectiveness. Basically, it is assumed that a mobile robot is traveling along a series of straight line segments, each segment at a certain constant velocity, and that the number of tags sensed by a mobile robot at each sampling instant is at most one. First, for a given line segment with known starting point, the velocity and position of a mobile robot is estimated using the spatial and temporal information acquired from the traversed tag. Some discussions are made on the validity of the basic assumptions and the localization for the initial segment with unknown starting point. Second, for a given tag distribution density, the optimal tag arrangement is considered to reduce the position estimation error as well as to make easy the tag attachment on the floor. After reviewing typical tag arrangements, the pseudorandom tag arrangement is devised inspired from the Sudoku puzzle, a number placement puzzle. Third, through experiments using our passive RFID localization system, the validity and performance of the mobile robot localization proposed in this paper is demonstrated.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.450-456
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• 2006

Monte Carlo localization is known to be one of the most reliable methods for pose estimation of a mobile robot. Although MCL is capable of estimating the robot pose even for a completely unknown initial pose in the known environment, it takes considerable time to give an initial pose estimate because the number of random samples is usually very large especially for a large-scale environment. For practical implementation of MCL, therefore, a reduction in sample size is desirable. This paper presents a novel approach to reducing the number of samples used in the particle filter for efficient implementation of MCL. To this end, the topological information generated through the thinning technique, which is commonly used in image processing, is employed. The global topological map is first created from the given grid map for the environment. The robot then scans the local environment using a laser rangefinder and generates a local topological map. The robot then navigates only on this local topological edge, which is likely to be similar to the one obtained off-line from the given grid map. Random samples are drawn near the topological edge instead of being taken with uniform distribution all over the environment, since the robot traverses along the edge. Experimental results using the proposed method show that the number of samples can be reduced considerably, and the time required for robot pose estimation can also be substantially decreased without adverse effects on the performance of MCL.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1053-1054
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• 2008

This paper presents the mobile robot initial velocity estimation using spatial/temporal information from passive RFID system. A mobile robot is traveling along a sequence of line segments, each at a constant velocity, and the number of passive tags sensed at every sampling instant is at most one. To simplify the problem, a mobile robot is commanded to traverse two passive tags with steering angle unchanged. The 6th order polynomial equation for the mobile robot initial velocity estimation is obtained, along with some discussion on resolving the multiplicity of solutions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.94-103
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• 2004

The vision system model used for this study involves the six parameters that permits a kind of adaptability in that relationship between the camera space location of manipulable visual cues and the vector of robot joint coordinates is estimated in real time. Also this vision control method requires the number of cameras to transform 2-D camera plane from 3-D physical space, and be used irrespective of location of cameras, if visual cues are displayed in the same camera plane. Thus, this study is to investigate the optimal number of cameras used for the developed vision control system according to the change of the number of cameras. This study is processed in the two ways : a) effectiveness of vision system model b) optimal number of cameras. These results show the evidence of the adaptability of the developed vision control method using the optimal number of cameras.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.4103-4117
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• 2014

Image processing and computer vision algorithms are gaining larger concern in a variety of application areas such as robotics and man-machine interaction. Vision allows the development of flexible, intelligent, and less intrusive approaches than most of the other sensor systems. In this work, we determine the location and orientation of a mobile robot which is crucial for performing its tasks. In order to be able to operate in real time there is a need to speed up different vision routines. Therefore, we present and evaluate a method for introducing parallelism into the multiple non-overlapping camera pose estimation algorithm proposed in [1]. In this algorithm the problem has been solved in real time using multiple non-overlapping cameras and the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Four cameras arranged in two back-to-back pairs are put on the platform of a moving robot. An important benefit of using multiple cameras for robot pose estimation is the capability of resolving vision uncertainties such as the bas-relief ambiguity. The proposed method is based on algorithmic skeletons for low, medium and high levels of parallelization. The analysis shows that the use of a multiprocessor system enhances the system performance by about 87%. In addition, the proposed design is scalable, which is necaccery in this application where the number of features changes repeatedly.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.164-172
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• 2008

This paper presents the efficient localization of a mobile robot traveling on the floor with tags installed, using the spatial and temporal information acquired from passive RFID environment. Compared to previous research, the proposed localization method can reduce the position estimation error and also cut down the initial cost tag installation cost. Basically, it is assumed that a mobile robot is traveling over a series of straight line segments, each at a certain constant velocity, and that the number of tags sensed by a mobile robot at each sampling instant is at most one. First, the velocity and position estimation of a mobile robot starting from a known position, which is valid for all segments except the first one. Second, for the first segment in which the starting position is unknown, the velocity and position estimation is made possible by enforcing a mobile robot to traverse at least two tags at a constant velocity with the steering angle unchanged. Third, through experiments using our passive RFID localization system, the validity and performance of the mobile robot localization proposed in this paper is demonstrated.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.901-905
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• 2005

Monte Carlo localization is known to be one of the most reliable methods for pose estimation of a mobile robot. Much research has been done to improve performance of MCL so far. Although MCL is capable of estimating the robot pose even for a completely unknown initial pose in the known environment, it takes considerable time to give an initial estimate because the number of random samples is usually very large especially for a large-scale environment. For practical implementation of the MCL, therefore, a reduction in sample size is desirable. This paper presents a novel approach to reducing the number of samples used in the particle filter for efficient implementation of MCL. To this end, the topological information generated off- line using a thinning method, which is commonly used in image processing, is employed. The topological map is first created from the given grid map for the environment. The robot scans the local environment using a laser rangefinder and generates a local topological map. The robot then navigates only on this local topological edge, which is likely to be the same as the one obtained off- line from the given grid map. Random samples are drawn near the off-line topological edge instead of being taken with uniform distribution, since the robot traverses along the edge. In this way, the sample size required for MCL can be drastically reduced, thus leading to reduced initial operation time. Experimental results using the proposed method show that the number of samples can be reduced considerably, and the time required for robot pose estimation can also be substantially decreased.