Landmark-based navigation strategies

Claus S. Andersen; Claus Br'ndgaard Madsen; Thorsteinn Johannesson; Olafur Stefansson

doi:10.1117/12.335695

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8 January 1999 Landmark-based navigation strategies

Claus S. Andersen, Claus Br'ndgaard Madsen, Thorsteinn Johannesson, Olafur Stefansson

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Proceedings Volume 3525, Mobile Robots XIII and Intelligent Transportation Systems; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.335695
Event: Photonics East (ISAM, VVDC, IEMB), 1998, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

A mobile robot can identify its own position relative to a global environment model using triangulation based on measuring angular separation between three landmarks in the environment. Multiple views from different locations of a smaller set of landmarks can also be used though. Alternatively the current position estimates can be updated using heading and distance measurements to a single landmark. Using these different strategies 8 position estimating techniques have been designed, analyzed and compared. These are based on viewing 1, 2 and 3 landmarks from one or two different viewpoints. It is shown that these procedures may be very sensitive to noise depending on the spatial landmark configuration, and relative position between robot and landmarks. A general analysis is presented which permits prediction of the uncertainty in the triangulated position. The uncertainty measure can be used to determine which of the light different techniques is the most suitable in specific situations. The entire analysis is based on a basic statistical approach, and verified experimentally. In addition to the evaluation of the individual techniques, an algorithm is presented for automatic selection of optimal landmarks. This algorithm enables a robot to continuously estimate its current position from the set of landmarks which provides the most stable solution. It is demonstrated that using this algorithm can result in more than one order of magnitude reduction in position uncertainty.

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Claus S. Andersen, Claus Br'ndgaard Madsen, Thorsteinn Johannesson, and Olafur Stefansson "Landmark-based navigation strategies", Proc. SPIE 3525, Mobile Robots XIII and Intelligent Transportation Systems, (8 January 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.335695

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