Collision avoidance is a fundamental and important task of an autonomous mobile robot for safe navigation in real environments with high uncertainty. Obstacles are classified into static and dynamic obstacles. It is difficult to avoid dynamic obstacles because the positions of dynamic obstacles are likely to change at any time. This paper proposes a scheme for vision-based avoidance of dynamic obstacles. This approach extracts object candidates that can be considered moving objects based on the labeling algorithm using depth information. Then it detects moving objects among object candidates using motion vectors. In case the motion vectors are not extracted, it can still detect the moving objects stably through their color information. A robot avoids the dynamic obstacle using the dynamic window approach (DWA) with the object path estimated from the information of the detected obstacles. The DWA is a well known technique for reactive collision avoidance. This paper also proposes an algorithm which autonomously registers the obstacle color. Therefore, a robot can navigate more safely and efficiently with the proposed scheme.

This paper describes a new method for indoor environment mapping and localization with stereo camera. For environmental modeling, we directly use the depth and color information in image pixels as visual features. Furthermore, only the depth and color information at horizontal centerline in image is used, where optical axis passes through. The usefulness of this method is that we can easily build a measure between modeling and sensing data only on the horizontal centerline. That is because vertical working volume between model and sensing data can be changed according to robot motion. Therefore, we can build a map about indoor environment as compact and efficient representation. Also, based on such nodes and sensing data, we suggest a method for estimating mobile robot positioning with random sampling stochastic algorithm. With basic real experiments, we show that the proposed method can be an effective visual navigation algorithm.

This paper describes the recognition method of moving objects in mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera. The moving object is detected using the specific pattern of an optical flow in omnidirectional image. This paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the pattern of an optical flow is investigated in omnidirectional image. The optical flow in omnidirectional image is influenced on the geometry characteristic of an omnidirectional camera. The pattern of an optical flow is theoretically and experimentally investigated. In the second part, the detection of moving objects is presented from the estimated optical flow. The moving object is extracted through the relative evaluation of optical flows which is derived from the pattern of optical flow. In particular, Focus-Of-Expansion (FOE) and Focus-Of-Contraction (FOC) vectors are defined from the estimated optical flow. They are used as reference vectors for the relative evaluation of optical flows. The proposed algorithm is performed in four motions of a mobile robot such as straight forward, left turn, right turn and rotation. Experimental results using real movie show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Based on object recognition technology, we present a new global localization method for robot navigation. For doing this, we model any indoor environment using the following visual cues with a stereo camera; view-based image features for object recognition and those 3D positions for object pose estimation. Also, we use the depth information at the horizontal centerline in image where optical axis passes through, which is similar to the data of the 2D laser range finder. Therefore, we can build a hybrid local node for a topological map that is composed of an indoor environment metric map and an object location map. Based on such modeling, we suggest a coarse-to-fine strategy for estimating the global localization of a mobile robot. The coarse pose is obtained by means of object recognition and SVD based least-squares fitting, and then its refined pose is estimated with a particle filtering algorithm. With real experiments, we show that the proposed method can be an effective vision-based global localization algorithm.

Recently, automatic parking assist systems are commercially available in some cars. In order to improve the reliability and the accuracy of parking control, pose uncertainty of a vehicle and some experimental issues should be solved. In this paper, following three schemes are proposed. (1) Odometry calibration scheme for the Car-Like Mobile Robot.(CLMR) (2) Accurate localization using Extended Kalman Filter(EKF) based redundant odometry fusion. (3) Trajectory tracking controller to compensate the tracking error of the CLMR. The proposed schemes are experimentally verified using a miniature Car-Like Mobile Robot. This paper shows that odometry accuracy and trajectory tracking performance can be dramatically improved by using the proposed schemes.

We propose a navigation algorithm using image-based visual servoing utilizing a fixed camera. We define the mobile robot navigation problem as an unconstrained optimization problem to minimize the image error between the goal position and the position of a mobile robot. The residual function which is the image error between the position of a mobile robot and the goal position is generally large for this navigation problem. So, this navigation problem can be considered as the nonlinear least squares problem for the large residual case. For large residual, we propose a method to find the second-order term using the secant approximation method. The performance was evaluated using the simulation.

The paper proposes a human-following behavior of mobile robot and an intelligent space (ISpace) is used in order to achieve these goals. An ISpace is a 3-D environment in which many sensors and intelligent devices are distributed. Mobile robots exist in this space as physical agents providing humans with services. A mobile robot is controlled to follow a walking human using distributed intelligent sensors as stably and precisely as possible. The moving objects is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the intelligent space. Uncertainties in the position estimation caused by the point-object assumption are compensated using the Kalman filter. To generate the shortest time trajectory to follow the walking human, the linear and angular velocities are estimated and utilized. The computer simulation and experimental results of estimating and following of the walking human with the mobile robot are presented.

We propose a optimal fusion method for localization of multiple robots utilizing correlation between GPS on each robot in common workspace. Each mobile robot in group collects position data from each odometer and GPS receiver and shares the position data with other robots. Then each robot utilizes position data of other robot for obtaining more precise estimation of own position. Because GPS data errors in common workspace have a close correlation, they contribute to improve localization accuracy of all robots in group. In this paper, we simulate proposed optimal fusion method of odometer and GPS through virtual robots and position data.

본 논문에서는 웨이퍼 레벨 밀봉 실장된 수직 운동 가속도 신호를 감지할 수 있는 초소형 Z축 가속도 센싱 엘리먼트를 제작하였다. 초소형 Z축 가속도 센싱 엘리먼트는 수직 방향의 정전용량 변화를 필요로 하기 때문에 단일 기판상에 수직 단차의 형성을 가능케 하는 확장된 희생 몸체 미세 가공 기술 (Extended Sacrificial Bulk Micromachining, ESBM) 을 이용하여 제작되었다. 확장된 희생 몸체 미세 가공 기술을 이용하면 정렬오

This paper proposes a method of avoiding obstacles and tracking a moving object continuously and simultaneously by using new concepts of virtual tow point and fuzzy danger factor for differential wheeled mobile robots. Since differential wheeled mobile robot has smaller degree of freedom to control and are non-holonomic systems, there exist multiple solutions (trajectories) to control and reach a target position. The paper proposes 'fuzzy danger factor' for obstacles avoidance, 'virtual tow point' to solve non-holonomic object tracking control problem for unique solution and three kinds of fuzzy logic controller. The fuzzy logic controller is policy decision controller with fuzzy danger factor to decide which controller's result is more valuable when the mobile robot is tracking a moving object with obstacles to be avoided.

The most important thing for navigation of a mobile robot is to find the most suitable path and avoid the obstacles in the static and dynamic environment. This paper presents a method to search the optimal path in start space extended to time domain with considering a velocity and a direction of moving obstacles. A modified version of A* algorithm has been applied for path planning in this work and proposed a method of path search to avoid a collision with moving obstacle in space-tim domain with a velocity and an orientation of obstacles. The velocity and the direction for moving obstacle are assumed as linear form. The simulation result shows that a mobile robot navigates safely among moving obstacles of constant linear velocity. This work can be applied for not only a moving robot but also a legged humanoid robot and all fields where the path planning is required.

It is dangerous that an inspector overhauls defects and condition of the inner parts of an oil tanker because of many harmful gases, complex structures, and etc. However, these inspections are necessary to many oil tankers over old years. In this study, we proposed the design of mobile robot for inspection of CAS in oil tanker. The developed CAS inspection mobile robot has four modules, a measurement module of oil tanker's thickness, a corrosion inspection module, a climbing module of the surface on a wall, and a monitoring module. In order to get over at a check position, the driving control algorithm was developed. Magnetic wheels are used to move on the surface of a wall. This study constructed a communication network and the monitoring program to operate the developed mobile robot from remote sites. In order to evaluate the inspection ability, the experiments about performance of CAS inspection using the developed mobile robot have been carried out.

Recently, with the development of service robots and with the new concept of ubiquitous world, the position estimation of mobile objects has been raised to an important problem. As pre-liminary research results, some of the localization schemes are introduced, which provide the absolute location of the moving objects subjected to large errors. To implement a precise and convenient localization system, a new absolute position estimation method for a mobile robot in indoor environment is proposed in this paper. Design and implementation of the localization system comes from the usage of active beacon systems (based upon RFID technology). The active beacon system is composed of an RFID receiver and an ultra-sonic transmitter: 1. The RFID receiver gets the synchronization signal from the mobile robot and 2. The ultra-sonic transmitter sends out the traveling signal to be used for measuring the distance. Position of a mobile robot in a three dimensional space can be calculated basically from the distance information from three beacons and the absolute position information of the beacons themselves. Since it is not easy to install the beacons at a specific position precisely, there exists a large localization error and the installation time takes long. To overcome these problems, and provide a precise and convenient localization system, a new auto calibration algorithm is developed in this paper. Also the extended Kalman filter has been adopted for improving the localization accuracy during the mobile robot navigation. The localization accuracy improvement through the proposed auto calibration algorithm and the extended Kalman filter has been demonstrated by the real experiments.

We present an implementation of particle filter algorithm for global localization and kidnap recovery of mobile robot. Firstly, we propose an algorithm for efficient particle initialization using sonar line features. And then, the average likelihood and entropy of normalized weights are used as a quality measure of pose estimation. Finally, we propose an active kidnap recovery by adding new particle set. New and independent particle set can be initialized by monitoring two quality measures. Added particle set can re-estimate the pose of kidnapped robot. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of our global localization and kidnap recovery algorithm.

We propose a planning algorithm to automatically generate a robust behavior plan(RBP)with which mobile robots can achive their task goal from any initial states under dynamically changing environments. For this, task description space(TDS)is formulated, where a redundant task configuration space and simulation model of physical space are employed. Successful task episodes are collected, where A algorithm is employed. Interesting TDS state vectors are extracted, where occurrence frequency is used. Clusters of TDS state vectors are found by using state transition tuples and features of state transition tuples. From these operations, characteristics of successfully performed tasks by a simulator are abstracted and generalized. Then, a robust behavior plan is constructed as an ordered tree structure, where nodes of the tree are represented by attentive TDS state vector of each cluster. The validity of our method is tested by real robot's experimentation for a box-pushing-into-a-goal task.

In this paper, we introduce visual contexts in terms of types and utilization methods for robust object recognition with intelligent mobile robots. One of the core technologies for intelligent robots is visual object recognition. Robust techniques are strongly required since there are many sources of visual variations such as geometric, photometric, and noise. For such requirements, we define spatial context, hierarchical context, and temporal context. According to object recognition domain, we can select such visual contextx. We also propose a unified framework which can utilize the whole contexts and validates it in real working environment. Finally, we also discuss the furture research directions of object recognition technologies for intelligent robots.

The Mobile robots are increasingly being used to perform tasks in unknown environments. The potential of robots to undertake such tasks lies in their ability to intelligently and efficiently search in an environment. An algorithm has been developed for robots which explore the environment to measure the physical properties (dust in this paper). While the robot is moving, it measures the amount of dust and registers the value in the corresponding grid cell. The robot moves from local maximum to local minimum, then to another local maximum, and repeats. To reach the local maximum or minimum, simple gradient following is used. Robust estimation of the gradient using perturbation/correlation, which is very effective when analytical solution is not available, is described. By introducing the probability of each grid cell, and considering the probability distribution, the robot doesn’t have to visit all the grid cells in the environment still providing fast and efficient sensing. The extended algorithm to coordinate multiple robots is presented with simulation results.