Showing papers on "Mobile robot navigation published in 1982"

Measuring Curved Surfaces for Robot Vision

Abstract: A new industrial revolution is in the making, produced by a marriage of two versatile technologies, the computer and the robot. This combination of control and manipulation produces a machine with enormous potential for performing useful tasks-yet such potential has not been fully realized. One way to improve the capabilities of current industrial robots is to add visual sensors. Robots that are deaf or dumb or that have no sense of force or touch perform only manually trainable tasks that can be dangerous in some working environments. Many applications call for an \"intelligent\" robot, a stand-alone machine-usually with its own visual, contact, or auditory sensory perception system-that can detect changes in its work environment and adapt to them. Such a detection process requires a large number of computations on the sensory data to distinguish features, recognize patterns, or compare input data with logical expectations. With the low cost of microprocessors and the increasing use of dedicated computers, intelligent systems for robots are becoming more and more sophisticated,\"2 and we have no shortage of potential applications: sensorybased robots can be used in space exploration, deep-sea mining, and industrial automation, for example.3'4 Computer vision, the collection of techniques, software, and hardware for measurements and inferences from images,3,6 appears to offer the richest source of sensory information for intelligent robotic manipulation in the greatest number of environments. A simple computer vision system usually consists of an image-processing unit interfaced with a minicomputer or mainframe,' but many kinds of systems are available, some for as little as $5000.8 However, most of these are low-level processing systems,9\"10 consisting of image acquisition, edge detection, feature extraction, template matching, and object recognition.* High-level processing is time consuming, since it requires a lot of computation. Nevertheless, image-processing algorithms can be implemented on minicomputers or mainframes.'3 In fact, imaging devices have been widely used in many automated visual inspection systems to perform pattern recognition and image processing for a specific task.'4\"l5 This article describes a technique that uses a recorded image of a projected pattern to measure 3-D surface points on simple, curved objects. The measured points are then fit to a quadric surface equation from which location, orientation, and surface recognition are extracted. For many man-made objects, this extracted information is sufficient to permit a robot hand to pick up the object, and results indicate that curved, featureless objects can be located.

Mobile robot turns to colour sensing

Abstract: A simple ultrasonic sensor coupled with a colour sensing system has been designed and built in the laboratory of the French National Institute of Applied Science at Rennes, and mounted on the laboratory's VESA mobile robot. It can distinguish simple configurations of obstacles and measure their distance from the robot, and within certain limits of illumination can classify obstacles to eight reference colours.

Stability of automatic guidance for a mobile robot

Abstract: A control law for the automatic guidance is proposed in this paper as if each obstacle exerts upon the mobile robot a repulsion, which varies inversely with the distance between the robot and the obstacle, and becomes infinite as the robot approaches the obstacle. Stability of the automatic guidance is studied when the mobile robot deviates from the ideal path. The results lead to criteria of selecting control parameters for better guidance.

Software or Hardware for Robot Vision

Abstract: The optimality of algorithms for the same task may differ depending on the host equipment: specialized hardware or general-purpose computer.

The Development of Electronic Navigation Systems

Abstract: This paper, which reviews briefly the development of modern maritime electronic navigation aids, was presented at a meeting of the Scottish Branch of the Institute held in Edinburgh on 7 October 1981. The electronic navigation systems dealt with in this paper are the principal position-fixing aids and the somewhat related computer radar data-processing equipment or Collision Avoidance Systems, inasmuch as these envelop a navigational task. The survey will thus embrace the principal hyperbolic aids – Decca Main Chain and Loran-C; the artificial satellite navigation systems – TRANSIT SATELLITE and NAVSTAR, the Global Positioning System; and the navigational role of collision avoidance systems.

On a Problem of Navigation

Abstract: I am reminded that this was the title of a paper by Professor W. M. Smart, published elsewhere in 1946, dealing with the rhumb line on the spheroid, by references in recent issues of this Journal to a paper of mine entitled ‘Loxodro-mic distances on the Terrestrial Spheroid’ which appeared in this Journal 32 years ago: the subject crops up every few years.