Localization and Control of an Outdoor Mobile Robot Based on an Estimator with Sensor Fusion

摘要

Localization is a very important technique for the mobile robot to navigate in outdoor environment. In this paper, the development of the sensor fusion algorithm for controlling mobile robots in outdoor environments is presented. The multi-sensorial dead-reckoning subsystem is established based on the optimal filtering by first fusing a heading angle reading data from a magnetic compass, a rate-gyro, and two encoders mounted on the robot wheels, thereby computing the dead-reckoned location. These data and the position data provided by a global sensing system are fused together by means of an extended Kalman filter. The proposed algorithm is proved by simulation studies of controlling a mobile robot controlled by a backstepping controller and a cascaded controller. Performances of each controller are compared.