Unscented Kalman Filter Based 3D Localization of Outdoor Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper proposes a practical method, for evaluating 3-D positioning of outdoor mobile robots using the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). The UKF method does not require the linearization process unlike conventional EKF localization, so it can minimize effects of errors caused by linearization of non-linear models for position estimation. Also, this method does not require Jacobian calculations difficult to calculate in the actual implementation. The 3-D position of the robot is predicted using an encoder and tilt sensor, and the optimal position is estimated by fusing these predicted positions with the GPS and digital compass information. Experimental results revealed the proposed method is stable for localization of the 3D position regardless of initial error size, and observation period.