Vision-based autonomous docking and re-charging system for mobile robot in warehouse environment

Abstract

This paper proposes a vision-based autonomous docking and recharging system that can operate in warehouse environment. The AprilTag is employed to provide the relative position of docking and charging devices. In addition, the docking mechanism applies two docking processes: searching zone process and approaching zone process. The experiment in the warehouse environment shows the docking success rate is around 97.33% with high accuracy. Different start position and approaching points may also influence the docking duration. The angel between the start point and charging station is negatively related to average duration time and the distance between approaching point and charging station is also negatively related to average duration.