3D-odometry using tactile wheels and gyros: Localization simulation of a bike robot

摘要

Odometry is a widely used method for estimating the location of a mobile robot on even terrain; the use of attitude sensors has expanded the application of this method to three-dimensional space. To estimate the location of a mobile robot on uneven terrain, this expanded odometry integrates the velocity of the robot, the direction of which is fixed to the robot's orientation from the data measured using the attitude sensors. However, in practice, the direction is not precisely fixed to the robot's orientation because its motion is influenced by the geometry of the terrain. We, therefore, propose a novel 3D-odometry using tactile wheels and gyroscopes. The proposed method estimates the robot's location by integrating the turning motion of the robot around an instantaneous 3D axis that is computed from data on the wheel-terrain contact points and the attitude. In this study, we conducted simulations to investigate the accuracy of the proposed method in tracking the locality of a bike robot traveling on uneven terrain.