• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.995-1005
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• 2011

An efficient outdoor local localization method is suggested using multi-sensor fusion with MU-EKF (Multi-Update Extended Kalman Filter) for car-like mobile robots. In outdoor environments, where mobile robots are used for explorations or military services, accurate localization with multiple sensors is indispensable. In this paper, multi-sensor fusion outdoor local localization algorithm is proposed, which fuses sensor data from LRF (Laser Range Finder), Encoder, and GPS. First, encoder data is used for the prediction stage of MU-EKF. Then the LRF data obtained by scanning the environment is used to extract objects, and estimates the robot position and orientation by mapping with map objects, as the first update stage of MU-EKF. This estimation is finally fused with GPS as the second update stage of MU-EKF. This MU-EKF algorithm can also fuse more than three sensor data efficiently even with different sensor data sampling periods, and ensures high accuracy in localization. The validity of the proposed algorithm is revealed via experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.594-600
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• 2012

Accurate localization is very important to stable navigation of a mobile robot. This paper deals with local localization of a mobile robot especially for outdoor environments. The GPS information is the easiest way to obtain the outdoor position information. However, the GPS accuracy can be severely affected by environmental conditions. To deal with this problem, the GPS and wheel odometry can be combined using an EKF (Extended Kalman Filter). However, this is not enough for safe navigation of a mobile robot in outdoor environments. This paper proposes a novel method using lane features from the road image. The pose data of a mobile robot can be corrected by analyzing the detected lane features. This can improve the accuracy of the localization process substantially.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.610-618
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• 2011

For improved localization around the indoor/outdoor transit area of buildings, this paper proposes an efficient algorithm combining the measurements from the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and the GPS (Global Positioning System) for. The proposed hybrid localization algorithm considers both multipath errors and NLOS (Non-Line-of-Sight) errors, which occur in most wireless localization systems. To detect and isolate multipath errors occurring in GPS measurements, the propose algorithm utilizes conventional multipath test statistics. To convert WLAN signal strength measurements to range estimates in the presence of NLOS errors, a simple and effective calibration algorithm is designed to compute conversion parameters. By selecting and combining the reliable GPS and WLAN measurements, the proposed hybrid localization algorithm provides more accurate location estimates. An experiment result demonstrates the performance of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1175-1180
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• 2014

This paper proposes a new technique that produces improved local information using a low-cost GPS/INS system combined with Extended Kalman Filter and Path Planning when a Quad-rotor flies. In the research, a low-cost GPS is combined with INS by Extended Kalman Filter to improve local information. However, this system has disadvantages in that estimation accuracy is getting worsens when the Quad-rotor flies through the air in a curve and precision of location information is influenced by performance of the used GPS. An algorithm based on Path Planning is adopted to deal with these weaknesses. When the Quad-rotor flies outdoors, a short moving path can be predicted because all short moving paths of quad-rotor can be assumed to be straight. Path planning is used to make the short moving path and determine the closest local information of data of the GPS/INS system to location determined by path planning. Through the foregoing process, improved local data is obtained when the quad-rotor flies, and the performance of the proposed system is verified from various outdoor experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.293-299
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• 2009

This paper discusses an autonomous navigation system for urban environments. For the localization of the robot, EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) algorithm is used with odometry, angle sensor, and DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) measurement. Especially in an urban environment, DGPS is often blocked by buildings and trees and the resulting inaccurate positioning prevents the robot from safe and reliable navigation. In addition to the global information from DGPS, the local information of the curb on the roadway is used to track a route when the global DGPS information is inaccurate. For this purpose, curb detection algorithm is developed and implemented in the developed navigation algorithm. Four different types of navigation strategies are developed and they are switched to adapt to different localization conditions according to the availability of DGPS and the existence of the curbs on the roadway. The experimental results show that the designed switching strategy improves the navigation performance adapting to the environment conditions.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.262-272
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• 2015

In particular, for a practical mobile robot team to perform such a task as that of carrying out a search and rescue mission in a disaster area, the network connectivity and localization have to be guaranteed even in an environment where the network infrastructure is destroyed or a Global Positioning System is unavailable. This paper proposes the new collective intelligence network management architecture of multiple mobile robots supporting seamless network connectivity and cooperative localization. The proposed architecture includes a resource manager that makes the robots move around and not disconnect from the network link by considering the strength of the network signal and link quality. The location manager in the architecture supports localizing robots seamlessly by finding the relative locations of the robots as they move from a global outdoor environment to a local indoor position. The proposed schemes assuring network connectivity and localization were validated through numerical simulations and applied to a search and rescue robot team.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.440-445
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• 2013

This paper proposes a local estimation system which combines Cell Divide Algorithm with low-cost GPS/INS fused by Extended Kalman Filter(EKF) for localization of Quad-rotor when it returns to the departure point. In the research, the low-cost GPS and INS are fused by EKF to reduce the local error of low-cost GPS and the accumulative error of INS due to continuous integration of sensor error values. When the Quad-rotor returns to the departure point in the fastest path, a moving path can be known because it moves straight, where Cell Divide Algorithm is used to divide moving route into the cells. Then it determines the closest position of data of GPS/INS system fused by EKF to obtain the improved local data. The proposed system was verified through comparing experimental localization results obtained by using GPS, GPS/INS and GPS/INS with Cell Divide Algorithm respectively.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2016

For a practical mobile robot team such as carrying out a search and rescue mission in a disaster area, the localization have to be guaranteed even in an environment where the network infrastructure is destroyed or a global positioning system (GPS) is unavailable. The proposed architecture supports localizing robots seamlessly by finding their relative locations while moving from a global outdoor environment to a local indoor position. The proposed schemes use a cooperative positioning system (CPS) based on the two-way ranging (TWR) technique. In the proposed TWR-based CPS, each non-localized mobile robot act as tag, and finds its position using bilateral range measurements of all localized mobile robots. The localized mobile robots act as anchors, and support the localization of mobile robots in the GPS-shadow region such as an indoor environment. As a tag localizes its position with anchors, the position error of the anchor propagates to the tag, and the position error of the tag accumulates the position errors of the anchor. To minimize the effect of error propagation, this paper suggests the new scheme of full-mesh based CPS for improving the position accuracy. The proposed schemes assuring localization were validated through experiment results.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.353-358
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• 2022

Due to the limited field of view of the pinhole camera, there is a lack of stability and accuracy in camera pose estimation applications such as visual SLAM. Nowadays, multiple-camera setups and large field of cameras are used to solve such issues. However, a multiple-camera system increases the computation complexity of the algorithm. Therefore, in multiple camera-assisted visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) the multi-view tracking algorithm is proposed that can be used to balance the budget of the features in tracking and local mapping. The proposed algorithm is based on PanoSLAM architecture with a panoramic camera model. To avoid the scale issue 3D LiDAR is fused with omnidirectional camera setup. The depth is directly estimated from 3D LiDAR and the remaining features are triangulated from pose information. To validate the method, we collected a dataset from the outdoor environment and performed extensive experiments. The accuracy was measured by the absolute trajectory error which shows comparable robustness in various environments.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2008

According to the ubiquitous trend, the needs for the context based application service have been increased. These services take on Location Based Service which is based on the current location of users. It is widely used that localization techniques use GPS or ground wave and more efficient and accurate methods have been studied. Recently, not only services which targeted outdoor but also services which targeted indoor, for example home services and facility guidance of the building come into the spotlight. In case of the outdoor positioning area, COTH (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) has been released and used but relatively it doesn't produce an outcome in the indoor positioning area. Therefore, this paper Proposes the indoor positioning technique using wireless LAN (Local Area Network) which is one of the widely used wireless communication technique. It analyzes the typical WLAN location positioning methodology has been studied and their advantage and disadvantage also suggests how to design and implement the specific WLAN positioning system. In addition, it suggests new methods that progress the accuracy of the existing systems and improve the efficient computation.