Continuous localization of a mobile robot based on 3D-laser-range-data, predicted sensor images, and dead-reckoning

摘要

This article describes the localization system of a free-navigating mobile robot. Absolute position and orientation of the vehicle are determined by matching vertical planar surfaces extracted from a 3D-laser-range-image with corresponding surfaces predicted from a 3D-environmental model. Continuous localization is achieved by fusing single-image localization and dead-reckoning data by means of a statistical uncertainty evolution technique. Extensive closed-loop experiments with the full-scale mobile robot MACROBE proved robustness, accuracy and real-time capability of this localization scheme.