We present a vision-based navigation and localization system using two biologically-inspired scene understanding models which are studied from human visual capabilities: (1) Gist model which captures the holistic characteristics and layout of an image and (2) Saliency model which emulates the visual attention of primates to identify conspicuous regions in the image. Here the localization system utilizes the gist features and salient regions to accurately localize the robot, while the navigation system uses the salient regions to perform visual feedback control to direct its heading and go to a user-provided goal location. We tested the system on our robot, Beobot2.0, in an indoor and outdoor environment with a route length of 36.67m (10,890 video frames) and 138.27m (28,971 frames), respectively. On average, the robot is able to drive within 3.68cm and 8.78cm (respectively) of the center of the lane.

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Mobile robot vision navigation & localization using Gist and Saliency

This article describes a simple monocular navigation system for a mobile robot based on the map-and-replay technique. The presented method is robust and easy to implement and does not require sensor calibration or structured environment, and its computational complexity is independent of the environment size. The method can navigate a robot while sensing only one landmark at a time, making it more robust than other monocular approaches. The aforementioned properties of the method allow even low-cost robots to effectively act in large outdoor and indoor environments with natural landmarks only. The basic idea is to utilize a monocular vision to correct only the robot's heading, leaving distance measurements to the odometry. The heading correction itself can suppress the odometric error and prevent the overall position error from diverging. The influence of a map-based heading estimation and odometric errors on the overall position uncertainty is examined. A claim is stated that for closed polygonal trajectories, the position error of this type of navigation does not diverge. The claim is defended mathematically and experimentally. The method has been experimentally tested in a set of indoor and outdoor experiments, during which the average position errors have been lower than 0.3 m for paths more than 1 km long. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Simple yet stable bearing-only navigation

Image features for visual teach-and-repeat navigation in changing environments

/pdf/simple-yet-stable-bearing-only-navigation-krajnik-et-al-1mgdbtkxm6.pdf

Simple yet stable bearing-only navigation: Krajník et al.: Simple Yet Stable Bearing-Only Navigation

This paper introduces a taxonomy of vision systems for ground mobile robots. In the last five years, a significant number of relevant papers have contributed to this subject. Firstly, a thorough review of the papers is proposed to discuss and classify both past and the most current approaches in the field. As a result, a global picture of the state of the art of the last five years is obtained. Moreover, the study of the articles is used to put forward a comprehensive taxonomy based on the most up-to-date research in ground mobile robotics. In this sense, the paper aims at being especially helpful to both budding and experienced researchers in the areas of vision systems and mobile ground robots. The taxonomy described is devised from a novel perspective, namely in order to respond to the main questions posed when designing robotic vision systems: why?, what for?, what with?, how?, and where? The answers are derived from the most relevant techniques described in the recent literature, leading in a natural...

/pdf/a-taxonomy-of-vision-systems-for-ground-mobile-robots-htq61cqrr8.pdf

A Taxonomy of Vision Systems for Ground Mobile Robots

We present a simple approach for vision-based path following for a mobile robot. Based upon a novel concept called the funnel lane, the coordinates of feature points during the replay phase are compared with those obtained during the teaching phase in order to determine the turning direction. Increased robustness is achieved by coupling the feature coordinates with odometry information. The system requires a single off-the-shelf, forward-looking camera with no calibration (either external or internal, including lens distortion). Implicit calibration of the system is needed only in the form of a single controller gain. The algorithm is qualitative in nature, requiring no map of the environment, no image Jacobian, no homography, no fundamental matrix, and no assumption about a flat ground plane. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of real-time autonomous navigation in both indoor and outdoor environments and on flat, slanted, and rough terrain with dynamic occluding objects for distances of hundreds of meters. We also demonstrate that the same approach works with wide-angle and omnidirectional cameras with only slight modification.

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Zhichao Chen

Papers

Qualitative Vision-Based Path Following