Evolutionary filter for robust mobile robot global localization

Mobile robot global localization aims to determine the robot’s pose in a known environment in the absence of the robot’s initial pose information. This article presents an evolutive localization algorithm known as Evolutive Localization Filter (ELF). Based on evolutionary computation concepts, the proposed algorithm searches stochastically along the state space for the best robot’s pose estimate. The set of pose solutions (the population) represents the most likely areas according to the perception and motion information received. The population evolves by using the observation and motion error derived from the comparison between observed and predicted data obtained from the probabilistic perception and motion model. The resulting global localization module has been integrated successfully in a mobile robot equipped with a laser range finder. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness, robustness and computational efficiency of the proposed approach.     

Exploration of 2D and 3D Environments using Voronoi Transform and Fast Marching Method

Robot navigation in unknown environments requires an efficient exploration method. Exploration involves not only to determine towards the robot must to move but also motion planning, and simultaneous localization and mapping processes. The final goal of the exploration task is to build a map of the environment that previously the robot didn’t know. This work proposes the Voronoi Fast Marching method, that uses a Fast Marching technique on the Logarithm of the Extended Voronoi Transform of the environment’s image provided by sensors, to determine a motion plan. The Logarithm of the Extended Voronoi Transform imitates the repulsive electric potential from walls and obstacles, and the Fast Marching Method propagates a wave over that potential map. The trajectory is calculated by the gradient method. The robot is directed towards the most unexplored and free zones of the environment so as to be able to explore all the workspace. Finally, to build the environment map while the robot is carrying out the exploration task, a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Modelling)algorithm is implemented, the Evolutive Localization Filter (ELF) based on a differential evolution technique. The combination of these methods provide a new autonomous exploration strategy to construct consistent maps of 2D and 3D indoor environments.     

Dual FastSLAM: Dual Factorization of the Particle Filter Based Solution of the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem

The process of building a map with a mobile robot is known as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem, and is considered essential for achieving true autonomy. The best existing solutions to the SLAM problem are based on probabilistic techniques, mainly derived from the basic Bayes Filter. A recent approach is the use of Rao-Blackwellized particle filters. The FastSLAM solution factorizes the Bayes SLAM posterior using a particle filter to estimate over the possible paths of the robot and several independent Kalman Filters attached to each particle to estimate the location of landmarks conditioned to the robot path. Although there are several successful implementations of this idea, there is a lack of applications to indoor environments where the most common feature is the line segment corresponding to straight walls. This paper presents a novel factorization, which is the dual of the existing FastSLAM one, that decouples the SLAM into a map estimation and a localization problem, using a particle filter to estimate over maps and a Kalman Filter attached to each particle to estimate the robot pose conditioned to the given map. We have implemented and tested this approach, analyzing and comparing our solution with the FastSLAM one, and successfully building feature based maps of indoor environments.     

Efficient autonomous global localization for service robots using dual laser scanners and rotational motion

This study presents an alternative global localization scheme that uses dual laser scanners and the pure rotational motion of a mobile robot. The proposed method extracts the initial state of the robot’s surroundings to select robot pose candidates, and determines the sample distribution based on the given area map. Localization success is determined by calculating the similarity of the robot’s sensor state compared to that which would be expected at the estimated pose on the given map. In both simulations and experiments, the proposed method shows sufficient efficiency and speed to be considered robust to real-world conditions and applications.

     

基于激光测距仪全局匹配扫描的SLAM算法研究

针对传统的SLAM(Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)算法构建地图时容易受环境因素和外界条件的的影响,在非线性系统状态下误差修正能力不足,且当机器人位姿都处于未知状态时,移动机器人位姿获取不精确,地图构建SLAM技术特征量的获取比较繁琐、不准确等问题。以电力巡检机器人为平台,研究了基于全局匹配的扫描算法,摒弃传统的栅格地图模型的插值方法,采用双线性滤波的插值方法,保证子栅格单元的精确性,估算栅格占用函数的概率和导数。最后采用此算法解决了SLAM地图构建的问题,并分别在室内室外环境进行实验。实验结果表明：基于激光测距仪的全局匹配扫描的SALM算法,在室内室外两种不同环境下,不受复杂背景的影响,准确地进行机器人位姿定位,以及环境地图的构建     

基于二维码视觉与激光雷达融合的高精度定位算法

为解决以蒙特卡罗定位算法为代表的激光室内定位算法存在的定位精度差和抗机器人绑架性能差的问题,以及传统二维码定位算法环境布置复杂且对机器人运行轨迹有严格要求的问题,提出了一种融合二维码视觉和激光雷达数据的移动机器人定位算法。机器人首先利用机器视觉技术搜索检测环境中的二维码,然后将检测出二维码的位姿分别转换至地图坐标系下,并融合生成先验位姿信息。而后以此作为初始位姿进行点云对准以得到优化后的位姿。同时引入里程计-视觉监督机制,从而有效解决了包括二维码信息缺失、二维码识别错误等由环境因素带来的问题,并保证了位姿的平滑性。基于移动机器人的实验结果表明,所提算法比经典的自适应蒙特卡罗定位（AMCL）算法的雷达采样点平均误差下降了92%,单次位姿计算时间减少了88%,可有效解决机器人绑架问题,并应用于以仓储机器人为代表的室内移动机器人。     

Improved Rao-Blackwellized particle filter for simultaneous robot localization and person-tracking with single mobile sensor

A probabilistic algorithm is proposed for the problem of simultaneous robot localization and people-tracking (SLAP) using single onboard sensor in situations with sensor noise and global uncertainties over the observer’s pose. By the decomposition of the joint distribution according to the Rao-Blackwell theorem, posteriors of the robot pose are sequentially estimated over time by a smoothed laser perception model and an improved resampling scheme with evolution strategies; the conditional distribution of the person’s position is estimated using unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to deal with the nonlinear dynamic of human motion. Experiments conducted in a real indoor service robot scenario validate the favorable performance of the positional accuracy as well as the improved computational efficiency.     

Sparse Local Submap Joining Filter for Building Large-Scale Maps

This paper presents a novel local submap joining algorithm for building large-scale feature-based maps: sparse local submap joining filter (SLSJF). The input to the filter is a sequence of local submaps. Each local submap is represented in a coordinate frame defined by the robot pose at which the map is initiated. The local submap state vector consists of the positions of all the local features and the final robot pose within the submap. The output of the filter is a global map containing the global positions of all the features as well as all the robot start/end poses of the local submaps. Use of an extended information filter (EIF) for fusing submaps makes the information matrix associated with SLSJF exactly sparse. The sparse structure together with a novel state vector and covariance submatrix recovery technique makes the SLSJF computationally very efficient. The SLSJF is a canonical and efficient submap joining solution for large-scale simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problems that makes use of consistent local submaps generated by any reliable SLAM algorithm. The effectiveness and efficiency of the new algorithm is verified through computer simulations and experiments.      

Iterated D-SLAM map joining: evaluating its performance in terms of consistency,accuracy and efficiency

This paper presents a new map joining algorithm and a set of metrics for evaluating the performance of mapping techniques. The input to the new map joining algorithm is a sequence of local maps containing the feature positions and the final robot pose in a local frame of reference. The output is a global map containing the global positions of all the features but without any robot poses. The algorithm is built on the D-SLAM mapping algorithm (Wang et al. in Int. J. Robot. Res. 26(2):187–204, 2007) and uses iterations to improve the estimates in the map joining step. So it is called Iterated D-SLAM Map Joining (I-DMJ). When joining maps I-DMJ ignores the odometry information connecting successive maps. This is the key to I-DMJ efficiency, because it makes both the information matrix exactly sparse and the size of the state vector bounded by the number of features.     

Monte Carlo Filter in Mobile Robotics Localization: A Clustered Evolutionary Point of View

Localization, i.e., estimating a robot pose relative to a map of an environment, is one of the most relevant problems in mobile robotics. The research community has devoted a big effort to provide solutions for the localization problem. Several methodologies have been proposed, among them the Kalman filter and Monte Carlo Localization filters. In this paper, the Clustered Evolutionary Monte Carlo filter (CE-MCL) is presented. This algorithm, taking advantage of an evolutionary approach along with a clusterization method, is able to overcome classical MCL filter drawbacks. Exhaustive experiments, carried on the robot ATRV-Jr manufactured by iRobot, are shown to prove the effectiveness of the proposed CE-MCL filter.     

Correlation-Based Scan Matching Using Ultrasonic Sensors for EKF Localization

This paper presents a localization method for a mobile robot equipped with only low-cost ultrasonic sensors. Correlation-based Hough scan matching was used to obtain the robot’s pose without any predefined geometric features. A local grid map and a sound pressure model of ultrasonic sensors were used to acquire reliable scan results from uncertain and noisy ultrasonic sensor data. The robot’s pose was measured using correlation-based Hough scan matching, and the covariance was calculated. Localization was achieved by fusing the measurements from scan matching with the robot’s motion model through the extended Kalman filter. Experimental results verified the performance of the proposed localization method in a real home environment.     

Vision-Based Kidnap Recovery with SLAM for Home Cleaning Robots

Emerged as salient in the recent home appliance consumer market is a new generation of home cleaning robot featuring the capability of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). SLAM allows a cleaning robot not only to self-optimize its work paths for efficiency but also to self-recover from kidnappings for user convenience. By kidnapping, we mean that a robot is displaced, in the middle of cleaning, without its SLAM aware of where it moves to. This paper presents a vision-based kidnap recovery with SLAM for home cleaning robots, the first of its kind, using a wheel drop switch and an upward-looking camera for low-cost applications. In particular, a camera with a wide-angle lens is adopted for a kidnapped robot to be able to recover its pose on a global map with only a single image. First, the kidnapping situation is effectively detected based on a wheel drop switch. Then, for an efficient kidnap recovery, a coarse-to-fine approach to matching the image features detected with those associated with a large number of robot poses or nodes, built as a map in graph representation, is adopted. The pose ambiguity, e.g., due to symmetry is taken care of, if any. The final robot pose is obtained with high accuracy from the fine level of the coarse-to-fine hierarchy by fusing poses estimated from a chosen set of matching nodes. The proposed method was implemented as an embedded system with an ARM11 processor on a real commercial home cleaning robot and tested extensively. Experimental results show that the proposed method works well even in the situation in which the cleaning robot is suddenly kidnapped during the map building process.     

Consistent triangulation for mobile robot localization using discontinuous angular measurements

Localization is a fundamental operation for the navigation of mobile robots. The standard localization algorithms fuse external measurements of the environment with the odometric evolution of the robot pose to obtain its optimal estimation. In this work, we present a different approach to determine the pose using angular measurements discontinuously obtained in time. The presented method is based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) with a state-vector composed of the external angular measurements. This algorithm keeps track of the angles between actual measurements from robot odometric information. This continuous angular estimation allows the consistent use of the triangulation methods to determine the robot pose at any time during its motion. The article reports experimental results that show the localization accuracy obtained by means of the presented approach. These results are compared to the ones obtained applying the EKF algorithm with the standard pose state-vector. For the experiments, an omnidirectional robotic platform with omnidirectional wheels is used.     

基于人工路标的易部署室内机器人全局定位系统

在一些布局易变或存在较多动态障碍物的室内,移动机器人的全局定位依然面临较大的应用挑战.针对这类场景,实现了一种新的基于人工路标的易部署室内机器人全局定位系统.该系统将人工路标粘贴在不易被遮挡的天花板上来作为参照物,仅依赖一个摄像头即能实现稳定的全局定位.整个系统根据具体的功能分为地图构建和全局定位两个过程.在地图构建过程中,系统使用激光SLAM算法所输出的位姿估计结果为基准,根据相机对路标点的观测信息来自动估计人工路标点在全局坐标系中的位姿,建立人工路标地图.而在全局定位过程中,该系统则是根据相机对地图中已知位姿的人工路标点的观测信息,结合里程计与IMU融合的预积分信息来对位姿进行实时估计.充分的实验测试表明,机器人在该系统所部署范围内运行的定位误差稳定在10 cm以内,且运行过程可以保证实时位姿输出,满足典型实际室内移动机器人全局定位的应用需求.     

Cooperative localization for disconnected sensor networks and a mobile robot in friendly environments

Localization for a disconnected sensor network is highly unlikely to be achieved by its own sensor nodes, since accessibility of the information between any pair of sensor nodes cannot be guaranteed. In this paper, a mobile robot (or a mobile sensor node) is introduced to establish correlations among sparsely distributed sensor nodes which are disconnected, even isolated. The robot and the sensor network operate in a friendly manner, in which they can cooperate to perceive each other for achieving more accurate localization, rather than trying to avoid being detected by each other. The mobility of the robot allows for the stationary and internally disconnected sensor nodes to be dynamically connected and correlated. On one hand, the robot performs simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) based on the constrained local submap filter (CLSF). The robot creates a local submap composed of the sensor nodes present in its immediate vicinity. The locations of these nodes and the pose (position and orientation angle) of the robot are estimated within the local submap. On the other hand, the sensor nodes in the submap estimate the pose of the robot. A parallax-based robot pose estimation and tracking (PROPET) algorithm, which uses the relationship between two successive measurements of the robot's range and bearing, is proposed to continuously track the robot's pose with each sensor node. Then, tracking results of the robot's pose from different sensor nodes are fused by the Kalman filter (KF). The multi-node fusion result are further integrated with the robot's SLAM result within the local submap to achieve more accurate localization for the robot and the sensor nodes. Finally, the submap is projected and fused into the global map by the CLSF to generate localization results represented in the global frame of reference. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the performances of the proposed method for robot-sensor network cooperative localization. Especially, if the robot (or the mobile sensor node) has the same sensing ability as the stationary sensor nodes, the localization accuracy can be significantly enhanced using the proposed method.     

Inspection of an underwater structure using point‐cloud SLAM with an AUV and a laser scanner

This paper presents experimental results using a newly developed 3D underwater laser scanner mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for real‐time simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The algorithm consists of registering point clouds using a dual step procedure. First, a feature‐based coarse alignment is performed, which is then refined using iterative closest point. The robot position is estimated using an extended Kalman filter (EKF) that fuses the data coming from navigation sensors of the AUV. Moreover, the pose from where each point cloud was collected is also stored in the pose‐based EKF‐SLAM state vector. The results of the registration algorithm are used as constraint observations among the different poses within the state vector, solving the full‐SLAM problem. The method is demonstrated using the Girona 500 AUV, equipped with a laser scanner and inspecting a 3D sub‐sea infrastructure inside a water tank. Our results prove that it is possible to limit the navigation drift and deliver a consistent high‐accuracy 3D map of the inspected object.     

Heterogeneous multisensor fusion for mapping dynamic environments

In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous multisensor fusion algorithm for mapping in dynamic environments. The algorithm synergistically integrates the information obtained from an uncalibrated camera and sonar sensors to facilitate mapping and tracking. The sonar data is mainly used to build a weighted line-based map via the fuzzy clustering technique. The line weight, with confidence corresponding to the moving object, is determined by both sonar and vision data. The motion tracking is primarily accomplished by vision data using particle filtering and the sonar vectors originated from moving objects are used to modulate the sample weighting. A fuzzy system is implemented to fuse the two sensor data features. Additionally, in order to build a consistent global map and maintain reliable tracking of moving objects, the well-known extended Kalman filter is applied to estimate the states of robot pose and map features. Thus, more robust performance in mapping as well as tracking are achieved. The empirical results carried out on the Pioneer 2DX mobile robot demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the methods a using homogeneous sensor, in mapping as well as tracking behaviors.     

自主移动机器人的室内结构化环境地图创建

定位与地图创建是自主移动机器人领域研究的重要课题.本文阐述了一种以扩展卡尔曼滤波算法为主要框架,运用直接位姿控制模型描述机器人运动的算法,实现了机器人在室内结构化环境中的同时定位和地图创建.仿真与实验结果表明,里程计信息无法满足定位和创建环境地图的要求,本文算法则能够实现机器人的精确定位.并生成满足一致性要求的地图.     

激光即时定位与建图算法综述

激光即时定位与建图(SLAM)算法是一种在机器人导航和自主驾驶领域被广泛应用的技术;该技术可以利用激光雷达扫描环境并提取特征点,实现机器人的自主定位和地图构建;针对机器人激光SLAM技术进行研究,分析了各个激光SLAM算法的基本原理,并且对主流SLAM算法进行了现状总结;根据激光SLAM算法的特点以及原理不同,将激光SLAM算法分为：基于滤波器的算法、基于图优化的算法、基于配准的算法、基于学习的算法等;基于上述分类,详细介绍了每个算法的优缺点,并且分述了近两年的主要研究成果;针对移动机器人激光SLAM算法研究现状,对激光SLAM算法的未来发展进行了展望。