In the past mobile robot research was often focused on various kinds of point-to-point transportation tasks. Mobile robot application in service tasks, however, requires quite different path planning and guidance approaches. This paper introduces and discusses in detail specific planning and guidance techniques for a mobile floor-cleaning robot. A kinematic and geometric model of the robot and the cleaning units as well as a 2D-map of the indoor environment are used for planning an appropriate cleaning path. The path is represented by a concatenation of two kinds of typical motion patterns. Each pattern is defined by a sequence of discrete cartesian intermediate goal frames. These frames represent position and orientation of the vehicle and must be translated into motion commands for the robot. The steps of this semi-automatic path planning system are illustrated by a typical cleaning environment. Vehicle guidance includes execution of the planned motion commands, estimation of the robot location, path tracking, as well as detection of and reaction to (isolated) obstacles. For location estimation a least-squares fitting of corresponding geometric contours from the 2D-environment map and geometric 2D-sensor data is used. Obstacle detection is accomplished by testing geometric 2D-sensor data to be part of the preplanned cleaning path. Path planning and parts of the developed vehicle guidance system have been tested with the experimental mobile robot MACROBE. Results reported in this paper demonstrate the efficiency of the described planning, location estimation and path tracking procedures in basic floor-cleaning tasks. >

Path planning and guidance techniques for an autonomous mobile cleaning robot

Continuous localization of a mobile robot based on 3D-laser-range-data, predicted sensor images, and dead-reckoning

This article describes the localization system of a free-navigating mobile robot. Absolute position and orientation of the vehicle are determined by matching vertical planar surfaces extracted from a 3D-laser-range-image with corresponding surfaces predicted from a 3D-environmental model. Continuous localization is achieved by fusing single-image localization and dead-reckoning data by means of a statistical uncertainty evolution technique. Extensive closed-loop experiments with the full-scale mobile robot MAC-ROBE proved robustness, accuracy and real-time capability of this localization scheme.

Continuous localization for long-range indoor navigation of mobile robots

Symbolic course description for semiautonomous agricultural vehicles

This paper presents the Cartesian motion control system of the autonomous mobile robot MACROBE (mobile and autonomous computer controlled robot experiment) of the Laboratory for Automatic Control Engineering, Technical University of Munich. This Cartesian motion control system is applicable to any vehicle with tricycle kinematic. It has a comfortable and open user interface and provides high path accuracy. The robot's 2D motion path is specified by a sequence of Cartesian subgoals. In a first step, the local path planning interpolates the subgoals by a combination of line and arc segments. In a subsequent step, a path with continuous curvature is obtained through approximation of the arc segments by polar splines. Polar splines allow easy calculation of the required steering angle based on the actual vehicle posture (position and orientation) through a combination of feedforward and feedback control. The paper describes system structure, command language, controller design, and experimental results.

Cartesian motion control of a mobile robot

Kartesische Bewegungssteuerung des autonomen, mobilen Roboters MACROBE

Von rechts nach hnks: Dr.-Ing. Franz fteyberger (Akad. Direktor), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günther Schmidt, (Ordinarius), Dipl.-Ing. Joachim Horn (Wiss. Mitarbeiter), Dipl.Ing. Detlev Glüer (Wiss. Mitarbeiter), Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Bott (Wiss. Mitarbeiter), Dipl.-Ing. Kianoush Azarm (Wiss. Mitarbeiter). Das Autorenteam beschäftigt sich am Lehrstuhl für Steuerungsund Regelungstechnik der Technischen Universität München mit autonomen mobilen Systemen. Diese Arbeiten wurden durch die

Wolfgang Bott

Papers

Kartesische Bewegungssteuerung des autonomen, mobilen Roboters MACROBE

Autonomiebausteine eines mobilen Roboterfahrzeugs für Innenraumumgebungen