3D Posture determination of a wheeled mobile robot by fusing dead‐reckoning and ultrasonic measurements

Abstract

Abstract This paper develops a methodology and technique for three‐dimensional (3D) posture determination of a mobile robot over uneven terrain. The proposed self localization system is developed by means of integrating a 3D dead‐reckoning (DR) subsystem together with a novel ultrasonic localization subsystem for indoor navigation. The extended‐Kalman‐filter (EKF)‐based mutilsensory fusion method is proposed to obtain reliable attitude and position estimates of the vehicle and to eliminate the accumulation errors caused by wheel slippage, surface roughness and wheel misalignment. Experimental results are performed to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system and method. Key words: dead‐reckoningextended Kalman filteringlocalizationmobile robotmultisensory fusionultrasonics Notes Corresponding author. (Tel: 886–4–22859351; Fax: 886–4–22851410; Email: [email protected])