A Landmark Based Localization System using a Kinect Sensor

Abstract

In this paper, a landmark based localization system using a Kinect sensor is proposed and evaluated with the implemented system for precise and autonomous navigation of low cost robots. The proposed localization method finds the positions of landmark on the image plane and the depth value using color and depth images. The coordinates transforms are defined using the depth value. Using coordinate transformation, the position in the image plane is transformed to the position in the body frame. The ranges between the landmarks and the Kinect sensor are the norm of the landmark positions in body frame. The Kinect sensor position is computed using the tri-lateral whose inputs are the ranges and the known landmark positions. In addition, a new matching method using the pin hole model is proposed to reduce the mismatch between depth and color images. Furthermore, a height error compensation method using the relationship between the body frame and real world coordinates is proposed to reduce the effect of wrong leveling. The error analysis are also given to find out the effect of focal length, principal point and depth value to the range. The experiments using 2D bar code with the implemented system show that the position with less than 3cm error is obtained in enclosed space(3,500mm×3,000mm×2,500mm)