Stereo vision and navigation in buildings for mobile robots

Abstract

A mobile robot that autonomously functions in a complex and previously unknown indoor environment has been developed. The omnidirectional mobile robot uses stereo vision, odometry, and contact bumpers to instantiate a symbolic world model. Finding stereo correspondences across a single epipolar line is adequate for instantiating the model. Uncertainty in sensor data is represented by a multivariate normal distribution, and uncertainty models for motion and stereo are presented. Uncertainty is reduced by extended Kalman filtering. To execute a high-level command such as 'Enter the second door on the left', a model is instantiated from sensing and motions are planned and executed. Experimental results from the fast, running system are presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>