Omnidirectional Position Location For Mobile Robots

摘要

Autonomous, self-guiding mobile robots require special sensors that are not necessary for stationary robots. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design, construction and initial testing of an omnidirectional vision system used to control a mobile robot. A unique sensor and algorithm have been developed to calculate the distance from the center of the vision system to fixed position targets. The system provides an absolute global positioning system for the mobile robot. The guidance and position determination algorithm are described and some experimental results are given. The sensor has been developed for a prototype mobile robot for lawn mowing. However, the method appears to have several other applications. Some of these include industrial carts for material transport, military sentry duties and mobile tanks, medical patient care transport systems, as well as domestic applications such as vacuum cleaning.