Attention-driven monocular scene reconstruction for obstacle detection, robot navigation and map building

In this paper, we present a feature-based approach for monocular scene reconstruction based on Extended Kalman Filters (EKF). Our method processes a sequence of images taken by a single camera mounted frontally on a mobile robot. Using a combination of various techniques, we are able to produce a precise reconstruction that is free from outliers and can therefore be used for reliable obstacle detection and 3D map building. Furthermore, we present an attention-driven method that focuses the feature selection to image areas where the obstacle situation is unclear and where a more detailed scene reconstruction is necessary. In extensive real-world field tests we show that the presented approach is able to detect obstacles that are not seen by other sensors, such as laser range finders. Furthermore, we show that visual obstacle detection combined with a laser range finder can increase the detection rate of obstacles considerably, allowing the autonomous use of mobile robots in complex public and home environments.     

基于激光测距仪的障碍物检测的仿真研究

为了进行准确和有效的导航,提出了利用机器人的车载激光测距仪来检测环境中的障碍物.利用激光测距仪对机器人的局部环境建立栅格地图,在该模型下对障碍物进行检测.针对连续变化时刻(t-1)和(t)下的两帧“图像”,在极坐标系中进行障碍物分割,根据分割结果建立障碍物链Object_ List (t-1)和Object_ List (t),计算出各特征参数,并作进一步的匹配和分类分析.如果存在动态障碍物,估计出相应的运动参数,更新得到t时刻的动态障碍物集Dob (N).为了验证算法的有效性,利用visual C++进行仿真,仿真实验结果表明,该方法进行环境中的动静态障碍物的检测是可行的和有效的.     

地图构建中动态障碍干扰滤除的一种方法

在移动机器人环境建图中,动态障碍物的存在直接影响传感器的读数,导致产生不一致的环境地图,因此,移动机器人构建地图必须滤除动态障碍物干扰。采用直线插补的方法在先前的局部图上搜寻机器人与目标点之间是否存在障碍物,若存在障碍,则可判定该障碍物已移走(即为动态障碍),应该予以滤除。实验结果证明,该方法能在建图过程中有效地滤除动态障碍,并能有效减少静态障碍物探测的误差累积,算法复杂度小。     

移动机器人基于激光测距和单目视觉的室内同时定位和地图构建

该文研究了部分结构化室内环境中自主移动机器人同时定位和地图构建问题.基于激光和视觉传感器模型的不同,加权最小二乘拟合方法和非局部最大抑制算法被分别用于提取二维水平环境特征和垂直物体边缘.为完成移动机器人在缺少先验地图支持的室内环境中的自主导航任务,该文提出了同时进行扩展卡尔曼滤波定位和构建具有不确定性描述的二维几何地图的具体方法.通过对于SmartROB-2移动机器人平台所获得的实验结果和数据的分析讨论,论证了所提出方法的有效性和实用性.     

Development of a laser range finder for three-dimensional map building in rubble

In order to search and rescue victims in rubble effectively, a three-dimensional (3D) map of the rubble is required. As a part of the national project on rescue robot systems, we are investigating a method for constructing a 3D map of rubble by teleoperated mobile robots. In this paper, we developed a laser range finder for 3D map building in rubble. The developed range finder consists of a ring laser beam module and an omnivison camera. The ring laser beam is generated by using a conical mirror and it is radiated toward the interior wall of the rubble around a mobile robot on which the laser range finder is mounted. The ominivison camera with a hyperbolic mirror can capture the reflected image of the ring laser on the rubble. Based on the triangulation principle, cross-section range data is obtained. Continuing this measurement as the mobile robot moves inside the rubble, a 3D map is obtained. We constructed a geometric model of the laser range finder for error analysis and obtained an optimal dimension of the laser range finder. Based on this analysis, we actually prototyped a range finder. Experimental results show that the actual measurement errors are well matched to the theoretical values. Using the prototyped laser range finder, a 3D map of rubble was actually built with reasonable accuracy.     

Three‐dimensional map building for mobile robot navigation environments using a self‐organizing neural network

In recent years, mobile robots have been required to become more and more autonomous in such a way that they are able to sense and recognize the three‐dimensional space in which they live or work. In this paper, we deal with such an environment map building problem from three‐dimensional sensing data for mobile robot navigation. In particular, the problem to be dealt with is how to extract and model obstacles which are not represented on the map but exist in the real environment, so that the map can be newly updated using the modeled obstacle information. To achieve this, we propose a three‐dimensional map building method, which is based on a self‐organizing neural network technique called “growing neural gas network.” Using the obstacle data acquired from the 3D data acquisition process of an active laser range finder, learning of the neural network is performed to generate a graphical structure that reflects the topology of the input space. For evaluation of the proposed method, a series of simulations and experiments are performed to build 3D maps of some given environments surrounding the robot. The usefulness and robustness of the proposed method are investigated and discussed in detail. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

栅格法视觉传感集成及机器人实时避障

研究移动机器人在室内环境下集成双目视觉和激光测距仪信息进行障碍物实时检测。由双目视觉系统检测环境获取视差信息,通过直接对视差信息进行地平面拟合的方法快速检测障碍物;拟合过程中采用了随机采样一致性估计算法去除干扰点的影响,提高了障碍物检测的鲁棒性。用栅格地图表示基于机器人坐标系的地平面障碍物信息并对栅格信息进行提取,最后把双目视觉与激光测距得到的栅格信息进行集成。实验表明,通过传感信息集成,移动机器人既得到了充分的障碍物信息,又保证了检测的实时性、准确性。     

Motion planning for mobile robots using a laser range finder

We have designed a mobile robot with a distribution structure for intelligent life space. The mobile robot was constructed using an aluminum frame. The mobile robot has the shape of a cylinder, and its diameter, height, and weight are 40 cm, 80 cm, and 40 kg, respectively. There are six systems in the mobile robot, including structure, an obstacle avoidance and driving system, a software development system, a detection module system, a remote supervision system, and others. In the obstacle avoidance and driving system, we use an NI motion control card to drive two DC servomotors in the mobile robot, and detect obstacles using a laser range finder and a laser positioning system. Finally, we control the mobile robot using an NI motion control card and a MAXON driver according to the programmed trajectory. The mobile robot can avoid obstacles using the laser range finder, and follow the programmed trajectory. We developed the user interface with four functions for the mobile robot. In the security system, we designed module-based security devices to detect dangerous events and transmit the detection results to the mobile robot using a wireless RF interface. The mobile robot can move to the event position using the laser positioning system.     

未知环境下单目视觉移动机器人路径规划

针对室内未知环境下的避障和局部路径规划,提出了一种单目移动机器人路径规划算法,该算法通过对环境图像的自适应阈值分割,获取障碍物与地面交线轮廓点集。通过对现有几种单目测距方法的分析比较,提出一种改进的空间几何约束单目视觉测距计算方法,并依据单目测距的几何关系建立了图像坐标系与机器人坐标系的映射,绘建了一定比例的局部地图。在局部地图上通过改进的人工势场算法为机器人规划路径,改进的人工势场算法解决了传统算法目标点不可到达的问题。通过MATLAB进行仿真实验,结果表明该方法可以规划出有效合理的路径。     

基于ICP算法和粒子滤波的未知环境地图创建

为了实现移动机器人仅依靠激光测距仪和里程计实时地创建精确的栅格地图, 本文提出了一种结合最近点迭代(Iterative closest point, ICP)算法和Rao-Blackwellized粒子滤波的同时定位与地图创建方法. 该方法利用ICP算法对相邻两次激光扫描数据进行配准, 并将配准结果代替误差较大的里程计读数, 以改善基于里程计读数的建议分布函数; 同时通过采用改进的抽样策略, 提高了粒子滤波过程中的抽样效率, 降低创建地图所需的粒子数. 仿真结果表明了该方法的有效性.