This paper compares methods for attitude estimation of a UUV(Unmanned Underwater Vehicle). Attitude estimation plays a key role in underwater navigation using DVL(Doppler Velocity Log). The paper proposes attitude estimation methods using EKF(Extended Kalman Filter), UKF(Unscented Kalman Filter), and CF(Complementary Filter). It derives methods using the measurements from MEMS-AHRS(Microelectromechanical Systems-Attitude Heading Reference System) and DVL. The methods are used for navigation in a test pool and their navigation performance is compared. The results suggest that even if there is no measurement relative to some absolute landmarks, DVL-only navigation can be useful for navigation in a limited time and range.

This paper verifies the performance of Extended Kalman Filter(EKF) and MCL(Monte Carlo Localization) approach to localization of an underwater vehicle through experiments. Especially, the experiments use acoustic range sensor whose measurement accuracy and uncertainty is not yet proved. Along with localization, the experiment also discloses the uncertainty features of the range measurement such as bias and variance. The proposed localization method rejects outlier range data and the experiment shows that outlier rejection improves localization performance. It is as expected that the proposed method doesn’t yield as precise location as those methods which use high priced DVL(Doppler Velocity Log), IMU(Inertial Measurement Unit), and high accuracy range sensors. However, it is noticeable that the proposed method can achieve the accuracy which is affordable for correction of accumulated dead reckoning error, even though it uses only range data of low reliability and accuracy.

This paper proposes particle filter(PF) method using acoustic signal for localization of an underwater robot. The method uses time of arrival(TOA) or time difference of arrival(TDOA) of acoustic signals from beacons whose locations are known. An experiment in towing tank uses TOA information. Simulation uses TDOA information and it reveals dependency of the localization performance on the uncertainty of robot motion and senor data. Also, comparison of the PF method with the least squares method of spherical interpolation(SI) and spherical intersection(SX) is provided. Since PF uses TOA or TDOA which comes from measurement of external information as well as internal motion information, its estimation is more accurate and robust to the sensor and motion uncertainty than the least squares methods.

This paper analyzes the motion of a horseback riding robot which has two actuators and three joints. It is impossible to control the saddle to get to any position and orientation using the two motors because the robot has less degrees of freedom than the number of joints. Therefore it is required to know the possible location and orientation along with the velocity characteristics of each pose prior to motion planning. For this purpose, this paper analyzes the characteristics of the robot motion. The authors derive the forward and inverse kinematics of the robot motion and developed the trajectory editor for motion planning. Also, Jacobian of the robot is analyzed. It reveals that one of the actuator has little influence to the speed of the saddle motion while the other affects the speed of the saddle motion dominantly. The approach of the paper can be applied for the analysis of characteristics of a robot which has less number of actuators than that of joints.

This paper proposes a path planning method of a mobile robot in two-dimensional work space. The path planning method is based on a cell decomposition approach. To create a path which consists of a number of line segments, the Delaunay Triangulation algorithm is used. Using the cells produced by the Delaunay Triangulation algorithm, a mesh generation algorithm connects the starting position to the goal position. Dijkstra algorithm is used to find the shortest distance path. Greedy algorithm optimizes the path by deleting the path segments which detours without collision with obstacles.

This paper suggests a multiple robot simulator which considers the uncertainties in robot motion and sensing. A mobile robot moves with errors due to some kinds of uncertainties from actuators, wheels, electrical components, environments. In addition, sensors attached to a mobile robot can't make accurate output information because of uncertainties of the sensor itself and environment. Uncertainties in robot motion and sensing leads researchers find difficulty in building mobile robot navigation algorithms. Generally, a robot algorithm without considering unexpected uncertainties fails to control its action in a real working environment and it leads to some troubles and damages. Thus, the authors propose a simulator model which includes robot motion and sensing uncertainties to help making robust algorithms. Sensor uncertainties are applied in range sensors which are widely used in mobile robot localization, obstacle detection, and map building. The paper shows performances of the proposed simulator by comparing it with a simulator without any uncertainty.