Mobile Robot Navigation Using Guideposts and a Single Camera

Abstract

A vision-based navigation method for a mobile robot is presented. The present method uses a number of guideposts placed along a navigation path in order for a mobile robot to self-localize and plan a path to go. Precisely, an artificial landmark and a bar-code are put on a face of the guidepost, where the former is used for self localization and the latter for indicating a command for navigation. For self-localization and scaning a bar-code, a visual measurement system with a single camera is used for taking addvantages of simpler and less cost method than stereo-vision system. Although the visual measurement method employed requires a couple of seconds for processing an image, we present a method of path planning for moving smoothly. We have verified that the navigation method works well by means of experiments using actual robot.