Spatial Reasoning In The Treatment Of Systematic Sensor Errors

Abstract

In processing ultrasonic and visual sensor data acquired by mobile robots systematic errors can occur. The sonar errors include distortions in size and surface orientation due to the beam resolution, and false echoes. The vision errors include, among others, ambiguities in discriminating depth discontinuities from intensity gradients generated by variations in surface brightness. In this paper we present a methodology for the removal of systematic errors using data fror the sonar sensor domain to guide the processing of information in the vision domain, and vice versa. During the sonar data processing some errors are removed from 2D navigation maps through pattern analyses and consistent-labelling conditions, using spatial reasoning about the sonar beam and object characteristics. Others are removed using visual information. In the vision data processing vertical edge segments are extracted using a Canny-like algorithm, and are labelled. Object edge features are then constructed from the segments using statistical and spatial analyses. A least-squares method is used during the statistical analysis, and sonar range data are used in the spatial analysis.