Development of Precise Localization System for Autonomous Mobile Robots using Multiple Ultrasonic Transmitters and Receivers in Indoor Environments

Abstract

A precise embedded ultrasonic localization system is developed for autonomous mobile robots in indoor environments, which is essential for autonomous navigation of mobile robots with various tasks. Although ultrasonic sensors are more cost-effective than other sensors such as LRF (Laser Range Finder) and vision, they suffer inaccuracy and directional ambiguity. First, we apply the matched filter to measure the distance precisely. For resolving the computational complexity of the matched filter for embedded systems, we propose a new matched filter algorithm with fast computation in three points of view. Second, we propose an accurate ultrasonic localization system which consists of three ultrasonic receivers on the mobile robot and two or more transmitters on the ceiling. Last, we add an extended Kalman filter to estimate position and orientation. Various simulations and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system.