采用双重采样的移动机器人Monte Carlo定位方法

移动机器人Monte Carlo定位效率受限于大量粒子的权值更新运算. 本文提出一种实现粒子集规模自适应调整的双重采样方法: 第一层基于粒子权重的固定粒子数重采样, 有效减轻粒子权值退化并保证预测阶段粒子多样性; 第二层粒子稀疏化聚合重采样, 基于粒子空间分布合理性将粒子加权聚合, 从而减少参与权值更新粒子数. 该方法通过提高粒子预测能力保证滤波精度, 通过减少权值更新运算提高了粒子滤波效率. 仿真实验表明, 双重采样方法能够有效实现粒子集规模自适应调整,采用双重采样的移动机器人Monte Carlo定位方法是高效、鲁棒的.     

不完整地图中移动机器人蒙特卡罗定位研究*

针对移动机器人在不完整地图中定位的问题,提出了一种改进的粒子聚类蒙特卡罗定位(Monte Carlo localization, MCL)算法。在定位过程中,将机器人的位姿分为六种状态,每一种状态对应一个粒子簇。在机器人运动的过程中,这六种状态之间可以相互转移,在计算状态转移概率的基础上,实现了不完整地图中移动机器人蒙特卡罗定位算法。实验验证了该算法在解决移动机器人在不完整地图中定位问题的有效性。     

Robust and real-time self-localization based on omnidirectional vision for soccer robots

Self-localization is the basis to realize autonomous ability such as motion planning and decision-making for mobile robots, and omnidirectional vision is one of the most important sensors for RoboCup Middle Size League (MSL) soccer robots. According to the characteristic that RoboCup competition is highly dynamic and the deficiency of the current self-localization methods, a robust and real-time self-localization algorithm based on omnidirectional vision is proposed for MSL soccer robots. Monte Carlo localization and matching optimization localization, two most popular approaches used in MSL, are combined in our algorithm. The advantages of these two approaches are maintained, while the disadvantages are avoided. A camera parameters auto-adjusting method based on image entropy is also integrated to adapt the output of omnidirectional vision to dynamic lighting conditions. The experimental results show that global localization can be realized effectively while highly accurate localization is achieved in real-time, and robot self-localization is robust to the highly dynamic environment with occlusions and changing lighting conditions.     

基于特征粒子的Monte Carlo自定位方法

提出了一种基于Monte Carlo方法的多机器人自定位方法．该方法在机器人进行自定位时,对用来估计机器人位置的MCL(Monte Carlo Localization)粒子空间进行栅格划分,然后采用可变栅格法获得能代表所有粒子整体特性的特征粒子集．因为特征粒子的数量较粒子总数大大减少,该方法能避免直接将Monte Carlo方法应用于多机器人定位中产生的维数灾的问题,可以在保证精度的情况下降低运算复杂度．仿真结果表明,该方法能较好地满足多机器人自定位的要求．     

移动机器人的改进无迹粒子滤波蒙特卡罗定位算法

粒子滤波是移动机器人蒙特卡罗定位(Monte Carlo localization, MCL)的核心环节. 首先, 针对粒子滤波过程的粒子退化问题, 利用迭代Sigma点卡尔曼滤波来精确设计粒子滤波器的提议分布, 以迭代更新方式将当前观测信息融入顺序重要性采样过程, 提出IUPF (Improved unscented particle filter)算法. 然后, 将IUPF与移动机器人MCL相结合, 给出IUPF-MCL定位算法的实现细节. 仿真结果表明, IUPF-MCL是一种精确鲁棒的移动机器人定位算法.     

Multi-objective evolutionary approach to prevent premature convergence in Monte Carlo localization

In this paper, we propose a global localization algorithm for mobile robots based on Monte Carlo localization (MCL), which employs multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) incorporating a novel archiving strategy, to deal with the premature convergence problem in global localization in highly symmetrical environments. Under three proposed rules, premature convergence occurring during the localization can be easily detected so that the proposed MOPSO is introduced to obtain a uniformly distributed Pareto front based on two objective functions respectively representing weights and distribution of particles in MCL. On the basis of the derived Pareto front, MCL is able to resample particles with balanced weights as well as diverse distribution of the population. As a consequence, the proposed approach provides better diversity for particles to explore the environment, while simultaneously maintaining good convergence to achieve a successful global localization. Simulations have confirmed that the proposed approach can significantly improve global localization performance in terms of success rate and computational time in highly symmetrical environments.     

分布式视觉机器人导航中的定位算法研究

生物启发的无线复眼导航技术是新型的机器人导航方案,将分布在环境中的分布式智能代替了传统的集中式智能。蒙特卡洛定位是近来流行的机器人自主定位算法,将这种算法应用在分布式视觉传感器机器人的定位中,并针对多视觉传感器观测值的最优选择,提出了一种分布式的基于熵的观测量选择方法,目的是选择那些对提高定位精度更有效的观测信息,在保证定位精度的前提下,提高了定位的实时性和可靠性。仿真实验结果证明了这种算法的可行性。     

分布式视觉机器人导航中的定位算法研究

生物启发的无线复眼导航技术是新型的机器人导航方案,将分布在环境中的分布式智能代替了传统的集中式智能。蒙特卡洛定位是近来流行的机器人自主定位算法,将这种算法应用在分布式视觉传感器机器人的定位中,并针对多视觉传感器观测值的最优选择,提出了一种分布式的基于熵的观测量选择方法,目的是选择那些对提高定位精度更有效的观测信息,在保证定位精度的前提下,提高了定位的卖时性和可靠性。仿真实验结果证明了这种算法的可行性。     

基于场景识别的移动机器人定位方法研究

提出了一种基于场景识别的移动机器人定位方法．对CCD采集的工作环境的系列场景图像,用多通道Gabor 滤波器提取场景图像的全局纹理特征,然后通过SVM分类器来识别场景图像,实现机器人的逻辑定位．在移动机器人CASIA-I 上对该算法进行了实验．实验结果表明,该定位方法可达到91.11%的定位准确率,对光照、对比度等因素有较强的鲁棒性,并且满足机器人实时定位的要求．     

Effective landmark placement for accurate and reliable mobile robot navigation

Being able to navigate accurately is one of the fundamental capabilities of a mobile robot to effectively execute a variety of tasks including docking, transportation, and manipulation. As real-world environments often contain changing or ambiguous areas, existing features can be insufficient for mobile robots to establish a robust navigation behavior. A popular approach to overcome this problem and to achieve accurate localization is to use artificial landmarks. In this paper, we consider the problem of optimally placing such artificial landmarks for mobile robots that repeatedly have to carry out certain navigation tasks. Our method aims at finding the minimum number of landmarks for which a bound on the maximum deviation of the robot from its desired trajectory can be guaranteed with high confidence. The proposed approach incrementally places landmarks utilizing linearized versions of the system dynamics of the robot, thus allowing for an efficient computation of the deviation guarantee. We evaluate our approach in extensive experiments carried out both in simulations and with real robots. The experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms other approaches and is suitable for long-term operation of mobile robots.     

Adaptive Dynamic Clustered Particle Filtering for Mobile Robots Global Localization

This article presents an adaptive dynamic clustered particle filtering method for mobile robot global localization. The posterior distribution of robot pose in global localization is usually multimodal due to the symmetry of the environment and ambiguous detected features. Moreover, the multimodal distribution of the posterior varies as the robot moves and observations be obtained. Considering these characteristics, we use a set of clusters of particles to represent the posterior. These clusters are dynamically evolved corresponding to the varying posterior by merging the overlapping clusters and splitting the diffuse clusters or those whose particles gather to some sub-clusters inside. Further, in order to improve computational efficiency without sacrificing estimation accuracy, a mechanism for adapting the sample size of clusters is proposed. The theoretical lower bound of the number of particles needed to limit the estimation error is derived, based on the central limit theorem in multi-dimensional space and the statistic theory of Importance Sampling. Then, a method for tuning the sample size for each cluster according to the derived lower bound is presented. Experiment results show the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is sufficient to achieve robust tracking of robot’s real pose and meanwhile significantly enhance the computational efficiency.     

基于粒子滤波器的移动机器人自定位方法研究

首先,对粒子滤波器的原理进行了简要阐述。然后详细描述了基于粒子滤波器的移动机器人自定位算法——蒙特卡洛定位算法。在ROS(Robot Operating System)平台上对该算法进行了仿真实验并分析了其性能。最后,对蒙特卡洛粒子滤波定位方法用于移动机器人定位进行了总结。结果表明,MCL(蒙特卡洛)算法是一种精确鲁棒的移动机器人概率定位方法,可对解决移动机器人的定位问题提供有意义的参考。提出的机器人自定位方法为机器人在Robocup竞赛中自主执行各种作业提供定位支持,已在2013年中国机器人大赛获奖。     

Online topological map building and qualitative localization in large-scale environment

A novel topological map representation as well as an online map construction approach is presented in this paper. By virtue of the topological map whose nodes are represented with the free beams of the laser range finder together with the visual scale-invariant features, the mobile robot can autonomously navigate in unknown, large-scale and indoor environments. Different from the traditional navigation methods that rely on precise global localization, the robot locates itself qualitatively by location recognition rather than calculating its global pose in the world reference frame. By combining the reactive navigational method, Beam Curvature Method (BCM), with the topological map, a smooth, real-time navigation without precise localization can be realized.     

Path following with a security margin for mobile robots

This paper addresses the problem of determining a feedback control law, robust with respect to localization errors, allowing a mobile robot to follow a prescribed path. The model that we consider is a dynamic extension of the usual kinematic model of a mobile robot in the sense that the path curvature is defined as a new state variable. The control variables are the linear velocity and the derivative of the curvature. By defining a sliding manifold we determine a stabilizing controller for the nominal system, that is when the exact configuration is supposed to be known. Then, we prove that the system remains stable when the feedback control inputs use estimated values instead of the exact values, and we characterize the control robustness with respect to localization and curvature estimation errors. The control robustness is expressed by determining a bounded attractive domain containing the configuration error as the closed-loop control is performed with the estimated state values. Two control laws are successively proposed. The former is deduced from Lyapunov's direct method, and the latter is based on variable structure control techniques. Using variable structure control we show that the size of the attractive domain can be easily minimized while keeping the balance between short response time, low output oscillation, and large stability domain. Knowledge of this attractive domain allows us to compute easily a security margin to guarantee obstacle avoidance during the path following process. Experimental results are presented at the end of the paper.     

ATmega16与PC机的移动机器人定位系统研究

为提高移动机器人定位系统的可靠性,设计了组合使用光纤陀螺仪、光电码盘和超声波传感器的定位系统,系统采用CAN总线的数据传输方式。ATmega16采集各传感器数据,再以CAN总线方式传输给PC机;PC机平台综合处理光纤陀螺、光电码盘与超声波返回的数据,实现移动机器人定位。定位算法以航迹推算为主,超声波传感器起辅助定位作用。实验表明定位系统可靠有效。     

An Efficient Localization Algorithm Based on Vector Matching for Mobile Robots Using Laser Range Finders

This paper describes an efficient localization algorithm based on a vector-matching technique for mobile robots with laser range finders. As a reference the method uses a map with line-segment vectors, which can be built from a CAD layout of the indoor environment. The contribution of this work lies in the overall localization process. First, the proposed sequential segmentation method enables efficient vector extraction from scanned data. Second, a reliable and efficient vector-matching technique is proposed. Finally, a cost function suitable for vector-matching is proposed for nonlinear pose estimation with solutions for both nonsingular and singular cases. Simulation results show that the proposed localization method works reliably even in a noisy environment. The algorithm was implemented for our wheelchair-based mobile robot and evaluated in a 135 m long corridor environment. Categories (3), (6).     

基于声音的分布式多机器人相对定位

提出了一种基于声音的分布式多机器人相对定位方法.首先,每个机器人通过声源定位算法估计发声机器人在其局部坐标系下的坐标;然后,每个机器人（不含发声机器人）通过无线通信方式将发声机器人在其坐标系下的坐标广播给所有其他机器人,通过坐标变换每个机器人可计算出所有其他机器人在其坐标系下的坐标,从而实现分布式相对定位.理论推导及实验证明只要两个机器人先后发声,通过本文所提方法即可实现多机器人相对定位.室内外环境中采用6个自制小型移动机器人实验表明,所提方法在3米的范围内可实现16厘米的相对定位精度.     

Ultrasonic navigation for a wheeled nonholonomic vehicle

In this paper, we demonstrate a reliable and robust system for localization of mobile robots in indoors environments which are relatively consistent to a priori known maps. Through the use of an Extended Kalman Filter combining dead-reckoning, ultrasonic, and infrared sensor data, estimation of the position and orientation of the robot is achieved. Based on a thresholding approach, unexpected obstacles can be detected and their motion predicted. Experimental results from implementation on our mobile robot, Nomad-200, are also presented.     

Outdoor Localization Using Stereo Vision Under Various Illumination Conditions

We present a mobile robot localization method using only a stereo camera. Vision-based localization in outdoor environments is a challenging issue because of extreme changes in illumination. To cope with varying illumination conditions, we use two-dimensional occupancy grid maps generated from three-dimensional point clouds obtained by a stereo camera. Furthermore, we incorporate salient line segments extracted from the ground into the grid maps. The grid maps are not significantly affected by illumination conditions because occupancy information and salient line segments can be robustly obtained. On the grid maps, a robot's poses are estimated using a particle filter that combines visual odometry and map matching. We use edge-point-based stereo simultaneous localization and mapping to obtain simultaneously occupancy information and robot ego-motion estimation. We tested our method under various illumination and weather conditions, including sunny and rainy days. The experimental results showed the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. Our method enables localization under extremely poor illumination conditions, which are challenging for even existing state-of-the-art methods.     

The Reverse Monte Carlo localization algorithm

Global localization is a very fundamental and challenging problem in Robotic Soccer. Here, the main aim is to find the best method which is very robust and fast and requires less computational resources and memory compared to similar approaches and is precise enough for robot soccer games and technical challenges. In this work, the Reverse Monte Carlo localization (R-MCL) method is introduced. The algorithm is designed for fast, precise and robust global localization of autonomous robots in the robotic soccer domain, to overcome the uncertainties in the sensors, environment and the motion model. R-MCL is a hybrid method based on Markov localization (ML) and Monte Carlo localization (MCL), where the ML based module finds the region where the robot should be and the MCL based part predicts the geometrical location with high precision by selecting samples in this region. It is called Reverse since the MCL routine is applied in a reverse manner in this algorithm. In this work, this method is tested on a challenging data set that is used by many other researchers and compared in terms of error rate against different levels of noise, and sparsity. Additionally, the time required to recover from kidnapping and the processing time of the methods are tested and compared. According to the test results R-MCL is a considerable method against high sparsity and noise. It is preferable when its recovery from kidnapping and processing times are considered. It gives robust and fast but relatively coarse position estimations against imprecise and inadequate perceptions, and coarse action data, including regular misplacements, and false perceptions.