Mobile robot guidance in a structured environment

Abstract

In this paper, an approach to guide mobile robot by reading visual communication signboards, destined to human-operators in a structured environment, is presented. The procedure is based on a joint use of a "shirt" of 6 infrared sensors and a color vision system, mounted on the mobile robot RL11. The data from both heterogeneous sensory systems are used on purpose to achieve reduction of ambiguities in the robot's motion guiding, and to increase the performance of the visual perception and recognition. The proposed approach of multi-sensor guidance allows the robot to move autonomously at a required distance from the walls and to reach an exact position before the implementation of a maintenance procedure with a target.