Robot navigation using qualitative landmark states from sketched route maps

Abstract

The goal of this work is to illustrate and evaluate a novel method for communicating with a mobile robot, namely, by drawing a sketch. The user draws a sketched route map to direct a mobile robot along a specified path. In this paper we focus on the navigation of the sketched path in the real environment. Challenges include sketch inaccuracies such as distortion or abstraction and low sensory resolution of the robot. Our method is based on utilizing spatial relations to extract a sequence of qualitative landmark states from the sketched map, which in turn the robot follows in a real environment to replicate the sketched route. Several examples are included.