Sensor Modelling, Design and Data Processing for Autonomous Navigation in Confined Environments

Abstract

From the Publisher: This book presents an unbiased framework for modelling and using sensors to aid mobile robot navigation. It addresses the problem of accurate and reliable sensing in confined environments and makes a detailed analysis of the design and construction of a low-cost optical range finder. This is followed by a quantitative model for determining the sources and propagation of noise within the sensor. The physics behind the causes of erroneous data is also used to derive a model for detecting and labelling such data as false. In addition, the author's data processing algorithms are applied to the problem of environmental feature extraction. This forms the basis of a solution to the problem of mobile robot localisation. The book develops a relationship between the kinematics of a mobile robot during the execution of successive manoeuvres and the sensed features. Results which update a mobile vehicle's position using features from 2D and 3D scans are presented.