Mobile Robot Localization using Ceiling Landmark Positions and Edge Pixel Movement Vectors

Abstract

A new indoor mobile robot localization method is presented. Robot recognizes well designed single color landmarks on the ceiling by vision system, as reference to compute its precise position. The proposed likelihood prediction based method enables the robot to estimate its position based only on the orientation of landmark.The use of single color landmarks helps to reduce the complexity of the landmark structure and makes it easily detectable. Edge based optical flow is further used to compensate for some landmark recognition error. This technique is applicable for navigation in an unlimited sized indoor space. Prediction scheme and localization algorithm are proposed, and edge based optical flow and data fusing are presented. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides accurate estimation of the robot position with a localization error within a range of 5 cm and directional error less than 4 degrees.