一种基于拟全方位视觉的移动机器人自运动融合估计方法

基于地平面假设的移动机器人单路视觉运动估计存在鲁棒性和环境适应性较差、精度较低等缺 点,针对这一问题,本文首先介绍了拟全方位视觉系统的构成,并结合该视觉系统的特点给出了一种基于两 步运动的摄像头平行位姿参数标定方法．然后据此提出了一种基于拟全方位视觉的自主移动机器人自运动融 合估计方法．该方法能够借助机器人的非完整运动约束、地平面运行假设以及运动估计参数之间的相容性测 度等多种因素,对拟全方位视觉系统中的各路视觉估计进行性能综合评价;最终依据评价结果融合确定出具 有较高可信度和较强鲁棒性的运动估计参数．实验结果从鲁棒性、精度以及实时性等方面验证了本算法的有 效性．     

Reliable Monte Carlo localization for mobile robots

Reliability is a key factor for realizing safety guarantee of fully autonomous robot systems. In this paper, we focus on reliability in mobile robot localization. Monte Carlo localization (MCL) is widely used for mobile robot localization. However, it is still difficult to guarantee its safety because there are no methods determining reliability for MCL estimate. This paper presents a novel localization framework that enables robust localization, reliability estimation, and quick relocalization, simultaneously. The presented method can be implemented using a similar estimation manner to that of MCL. The method can increase localization robustness to environment changes by estimating known and unknown obstacles while performing localization; however, localization failure of course occurs by unanticipated errors. The method also includes a reliability estimation function that enables a robot to know whether localization has failed. Additionally, the method can seamlessly integrate a global localization method via importance sampling. Consequently, quick relocalization from a failure state can be realized while mitigating noisy influence of global localization. We conduct three types of experiments using wheeled mobile robots equipped with a two-dimensional LiDAR. Results show that reliable MCL that performs robust localization, self-failure detection, and quick failure recovery can be realized.     

移动机器人编队视觉定位方法研究

该文提出一种基于视觉的移动机器人编队定位方法。该方法采用基于纹理的图象对机器人进行标识,然后使用纹理中的特征点对机器人的位置和姿态进行估计,使用最小二乘算法使估计结果误差最小。实验证明该方法能够有效地对编队的移动机器人定位,同时对环境干扰具有鲁棒性。     

移动机器人导航系统中的车道线检测方法及实现

针对室外移动机器人GPS与惯性导航不足之处,在GPS与惯性导航基础上,提出了采用视觉检测方法实时识别路面的车道线信息,对移动机器人进行辅助定位。在传统的Canny边缘检测算子基础上,提出了使用改进型小波阀值算法与Canny边缘检测算子进行融合处理,其基本原理是先使用改进型小波阀值算法,代替传统的高斯滤波器进行平滑和降噪处理,然后再使用Canny边缘检测算子提取边缘特征。最后使用matlab软件对采集到的路面视频信息进行处理,计算出移动机器人相对于路面车道线的偏转角度和偏离距离。实验发现12000帧图像中有仅有892帧图像检测失败,成功率达到92.6%,取得较好效果。为移动机器人的室外自主移动提供有力支撑。     

Online Short-Term Multiple Sound Source Mapping for a Mobile Robot by Robust Motion Triangulation

The paper describes a two-dimensional (2-D) sound source mapping system for a mobile robot. The robot localizes the directions of sound sources while moving and estimates the positions of sound sources using triangulation from a short time period of directional localization results. Three key components are denoted. (i) Directional localization and separation method of different pressure sound sources by combining the Delay and Sum Beam Forming (DSBF) and the Frequency Band Selection (FBS) algorithms. (ii) The design of the microphone array by beam forming simulation to increase the resolution of the localization procedure and its robustness to ambient noise. (iii) Sound position estimation by using the RAndom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. Then we achieved 2-D multiple sound source mapping from time-limited data with high accuracy. Applying FBS as a binary filter after DSBF improves robustness for multiple sound source localization under robotic movement. In addition, a moving sound source separation method is shown by using segments of the DSBF enhanced signal derived from the localization process.     

一种新的基于RFID的室内移动机器人自定位方法研究

针对室内移动机器人自定位算法定位精度不高、定位误差存在波动的问题,提出了一种RTFL(RFID tag floor based localization)定位算法与RSSI定位算法相结合的室内移动机器人自定位方法。由RTFL定位算法给定机器人位置估算初值和机器人所在的范围,然后通过基于RSSI的机器人自定位系统进行机器人位置的进一步精确定位。求解过程中,通过遗传算法求解极大似然方程组,并且提出了染色体的筛选和剔除策略。仿真实验结果表明：该方法在有效的时间内完成定位,平均定位误差为0.1572m,与传统的改进方法0.33214m的定位误差相比,降低了近一倍。并且新方法受环境影响较小,鲁棒性较好,能够很好的满足室内移动机器人的定位要求。     

Systematic robustness analysis of least squares mobile robot velocity estimation using a regular polygonal optical mouse array

This paper presents the robust velocity estimation of an omnidirectional mobile robot using a regular polygonal array of optical mice that are installed at the bottom of a mobile robot. First, the velocity kinematics from a mobile robot to an array of optical mice is derived, from which the least squares estimation of the mobile robot velocity is obtained as the simple average of the optical mouse velocity readings. Second, it is shown that a redundant number of optical mice contributes to the robustness of the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation against both measurement noises and partial malfunction of optical mice. Third, the sensitivity analysis of the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation to imprecise installation of optical mice is made, from which a practical method of optical mouse position calibration is devised. Finally, some experimental results using commercial optical mice are given to demonstrate the validity and performance of the proposed mobile robot velocity estimation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Reliability-based camera handoff for cooperative tracking with multiple pan-tilt cameras

We present a new handoff method for multiple pan-tilt cameras for mobile robot tracking in an indoor environment. Camera handoff is an important step to consistently maintain the visibility of a mobile robot with maximized object tracking accuracy. First, we propose a method to estimate the position of a mobile robot using single pan-tilt camera. Then, the concept of position reliability is defined to quantitatively evaluate the accuracy of position estimation and tracking ability of individual pan-tilt cameras. Position reliability is used to decide when to trigger handoff and who to response handoff in the proposed handoff algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that four pan-tilt cameras can systematically track a mobile robot in an indoor environment using the proposed method.     

基于形态学结构元素建模的车道线检测算法

针对智能车辆辅助导航系统中车道线检测算法复杂、鲁棒性差的问题,提出了一种基于形态学结构元素建模的车道线检测算法。算法首先通过交变序列滤波器对原始图像进行滤波,然后利用具有车道模型特征的结构元素对预处理后的图像进行特定目标提取,再对提取出的车道左、右标识线进行外线判断运算以去除双边缘,将所得结果进行整合得到车道左右内侧边缘线,最后进行Hough变换标记车道线。实验表明,该算法简单、鲁棒性强,能准确地检测到车道标识线。     

Robust face tracking control of a mobile robot using self‐tuning Kalman filter and echo state network

This paper presents a novel design of face tracking algorithm and visual state estimation for a mobile robot face tracking interaction control system. The advantage of this design is that it can track a user's face under several external uncertainties and estimate the system state without the knowledge about target's 3D motion‐model information. This feature is helpful for the development of a real‐time visual tracking control system. In order to overcome the change in skin color due to light variation, a real‐time face tracking algorithm is proposed based on an adaptive skin color search method. Moreover, in order to increase the robustness against colored observation noise, a new visual state estimator is designed by combining a Kalman filter with an echo state network‐based self‐tuning algorithm. The performance of this estimator design has been evaluated using computer simulation. Several experiments on a mobile robot validate the proposed control system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

基于迁移学习的移动机器人单帧图像坡度检测算法

针对未知环境下移动机器人平稳上坡控制对坡度感知精度的要求,本文提出了一种基于迁移学习的移动机器人单帧图像坡度检测算法.利用室内图像标准数据集训练深度卷积神经场-全连接超像素池化网络(deep convolutional neural field-fully connected superpixel pooling ne...     

基于增强转移网络（ATN）的室外移动机器人道路图像理解

道路图像理解是室外移动机器人视觉导航自主驾驶研究中的一个关键技术 ,由于基于视觉导航的室外移动机器人自主驾驶时 ,对实时性和鲁棒性要求很高 ,因此 ,为了满足室外移动机器人自主驾驶的实时性和鲁棒性要求 ,将人工智能研究句法分析中的一个形式体系——增强转移网络 (ATN )成功地应用于室外移动机器人的道路理解中 ,进而提出了基于 ATN的室外移动机器人道路图像理解算法 ,该算法在统一的 ATN构建思想指导下 ,针对不同的道路情况 ,不仅可以灵活地构建出不同的道理理解 ATN网络 ,还可达到本质上的统一及应用上的灵活。经实验检验 ,该算法在满足系统要求的鲁棒性条件下 ,具有非常高的实时性 ,即能充分地满足自主移动机器人高速自主导航的需要     

一种基于直线模型的车道线识别算法研究*

为了更好地满足车道标志线识别算法的实时性和鲁棒性要求,提出了一种新的、有效的车道标志线识别算法。将图像灰度化后,采用中值滤波去除图像采集过程中引入的噪声,应用方向可调滤波器进行边缘提取,在提取过程中对原图像进行感兴趣区域划分并采用边缘分布函数法确定方向可调滤波器的初始方向角。提出使用基于梯度加权的霍夫变换对车道标志线进行识别,通过建立梯形感兴趣区域的方法实现对车道标志线的实时跟踪,并对多段实地采集的视频进行实验测试。结果表明:基于方向可调滤波器与梯度加权的霍夫变换相结合的车道标志线识别方法,简化了对车道标志线信息特征参量的估计;不仅大大缩减了算法的执行时间,而且使算法的鲁棒性得到很大的提高。     

Direction Sensing RFID Reader for Mobile Robot Navigation

A self-contained direction sensing radio frequency identification (RFID) reader is developed employing a dual-directional antenna for automated target acquisition and docking of a mobile robot in indoor environments. The dual-directional antenna estimates the direction of arrival (DOA) of signals from a transponder by using the ratio of the received signal strengths between two adjacent antennas. This enables the robot to continuously monitor the changes in transponder directions and ensures reliable docking guidance to the target transponder. One of the technical challenges associated with this RFID direction finding is to sustain the accuracy of the estimated DOA that varies according to environmental conditions. It is often the case that the robot loses its way to the target in a cluttered environment. To cope with this problem, the direction correction algorithm is proposed to triangulate the location of the transponder with the most recent three DOA estimates. Theoretical simulation results verify the reliability of the proposed algorithm that quantifies the potential error in the DOA estimation. Using the algorithm, we validate mobile robot docking to an RFID transponder in an office environment occupied by obstacles.     

Saliency and spatial information-based landmark selection for mobile robot navigation in natural environments

In this paper, a landmark selection and tracking approach is presented for mobile robot navigation in natural environments, using textural distinctiveness-based saliency detection and spatial information acquired from stereo data. The presented method focuses on achieving high robustness of tracking rather than self-positioning accuracy. The landmark selection method is designed to select a small amount of the most salient feature points in a wide variety of sparse unknown environments to ensure successful matching. Landmarks are selected by an iterative algorithm from a textural distinctiveness-based saliency map extended with spatial information, where a repulsive potential field is created around the position of each already selected landmark for better distribution in order to increase robustness. The template matching of landmarks is aided with visual odometry-based motion estimation. Other robustness increasing strategies includes estimating landmark positions by unscented Kalman filters as well as from surrounding landmarks. Experimental results show that the introduced method is robust and suitable for natural environments.     

Maximizing Reward in a Non-Stationary Mobile Robot Environment

The ability of a robot to improve its performance on a task can be critical, especially in poorly known and non-stationary environments where the best action or strategy is dependent upon the current state of the environment. In such systems, a good estimate of the current state of the environment is key to establishing high performance, however quantified. In this paper, we present an approach to state estimation in poorly known and non-stationary mobile robot environments, focusing on its application to a mine collection scenario, where performance is quantified using reward maximization. The approach is based on the use of augmented Markov models (AMMs), a sub-class of semi-Markov processes. We have developed an algorithm for incrementally constructing arbitrary-order AMMs on-line. It is used to capture the interaction dynamics between a robot and its environment in terms of behavior sequences executed during the performance of a task. For the purposes of reward maximization in a non-stationary environment, multiple AMMs monitor events at different timescales and provide statistics used to select the AMM likely to have a good estimate of the environmental state. AMMs with redundant or outdated information are discarded, while attempting to maintain sufficient data to reduce conformation to noise. This approach has been successfully implemented on a mobile robot performing a mine collection task. In the context of this task, we first present experimental results validating our reward maximization performance criterion. We then incorporate our algorithm for state estimation using multiple AMMs, allowing the robot to select appropriate actions based on the estimated state of the environment. The approach is tested first with a physical robot, in a non-stationary environment with an abrupt change, then with a simulation, in a gradually shifting environment.     

半结构化场景下移动机器人视觉边线检测综述

面向机器人自主运动的视觉感知技术是实现机器人与环境交互的关键技术之一,边线作为保证机器人运动安全的一种视觉信息,具有广泛的研究价值,而半结构化场景为边线检测带来新的挑战.基于手工提取特征的检测方法在面对非城市环境或路面视觉信息不明显的复杂场景时并不能表现出鲁棒性,利用深度学习方法进行边线检测已成为一种主流趋势.鉴于此,针对半结构化场景下的移动机器人视觉边线检测研究进行综述,考察部分边线检测算法在半结构化场景下的应用前景与应用效果.首先,对常用的边线检测数据集进行整理,从采集场景、标注类型等角度分析当前数据集及研究的侧重点;其次,对不同的方法进行分类与总结,比较检测与数据处理过程;接着,对深度学习常用的评价指标进行整理,并对不同方法在面对不同场景时的检测效果进行比较和分析;最后,针对半结构化场景下边线检测所存在的问题,对基于深度学习的视觉边线检测方法的研究方向进行展望.     

Navigation strategy of multiple mobile robot systems based on the null-space projection method

This paper deals with a navigation algorithm for swarm robot systems in which multiple mobile robots work together. The motion of each mobile robot is modeled in such a way to have more inputs than the number of outputs. The null-space projection method of this model is employed to resolve the motion of the swarm robot system while avoiding obstacles. The feasibility of the proposed navigation algorithm is verified through a simulation study using several swarm robot models.     

一种多移动机器人避障的改进算法

为了使多机器人在有障碍物的环境中可靠地运行,针对多机器人的避障问题,融合沿墙行为的避障模式,构造出一类具有自适应特性l-ψ闭环控制律下的多机器人避障算法,以作为基于行为的控制策略的有益补充。仿真结果表明,该算法可以成功地解决机器人因融合参数不当而形成的避障"死锁"问题,使多机器人在有障碍物的环境下,在障碍物区能够顺利地通过障碍物,在离开障碍物后,快速恢复至稳定。     

Obstacle arrangement detection using multichannel ultrasonic sonar for indoor mobile robots

In the last few years, mobile robot systems that perform complicated tasks have been studied. To work in complicated environments, the robot has to avoid collisions with obstacles. Therefore the robot needs to detect the arrangement of any surrounding obstacles. We considered a simple distance estimation algorithm using ultrasonic sonar. Since the algorithm was able to estimate distance accurately, we also attempted stereo reception using two ultrasonic microphones. The stereo reception sonar was able to detect the direction of obstacles. In order to make precise measurements, we attempted to use the signal coherence of ultrasonic waves. In order to install a small system into mobile robots and to detect any surrounding obstacles, we designed a multichannel sonar signal processing system using a high-performance embedded microcontroller. This article describes our ideas for the distance estimation algorithm for ultrasonic sonar, and a design for a signal processing system using a high-performance microcontroller.