MOBILE ROBOT LOCALIZATION - INTEGRATING MEASUREMENTS FROM A TIME-OF-FLIGHT LASER

This paper presents an algorithm for environment mapping by integratin g scans from a time-of-flight laser and odometer readings from a mobil e robot. The range weighted Hough transform (RWHT) is used as a robust method to extract lines from the range data. The resulting peaks in t he RWHT are used as feature coordinates when these lines/walls are use d as landmarks during navigation, The associations between observation s over the time sequence are made in a systematic way using a decision directed classifier, Natural geometrical landmarks are described in t he robot frame together with a covariance matrix representing the spat ial uncertainty, The map is thus built up incrementally as the robot m oves, If the map is given in advance, the robot can find its location and navigate relative to this a priori given map. Experimental results are presented for a mobile robot with a scanning range measuring lase r having 2-cm resolution. The algorithm was also used for an autonomou s plastering robot on a construction site, The sensor fusion algorithm makes few erroneous associations.