Map Building and Monte Carlo Localization Using Global Appearance of Omnidirectional Images

In this paper we deal with the problem of map building and localization of a mobile robot in an environment using the information provided by an omnidirectional vision sensor that is mounted on the robot. Our main objective consists of studying the feasibility of the techniques based in the global appearance of a set of omnidirectional images captured by this vision sensor to solve this problem. First, we study how to describe globally the visual information so that it represents correctly locations and the geometrical relationships between these locations. Then, we integrate this information using an approach based on a spring-mass-damper model, to create a topological map of the environment. Once the map is built, we propose the use of a Monte Carlo localization approach to estimate the most probable pose of the vision system and its trajectory within the map. We perform a comparison in terms of computational cost and error in localization. The experimental results we present have been obtained with real indoor omnidirectional images

LexToMap: lexical-based topological mapping

Any robot should be provided with a proper representation of its environment in order to perform navigation and other tasks. In addition to metrical approaches, topological mapping generates graph representations in which nodes and edges correspond to locations and transitions. In this article, we present LexToMap, a topological mapping procedure that relies on image annotations. These annotations, represented in this work by lexical labels, are obtained from pre-trained deep learning models, namely CNNs, and are used to estimate image similarities. Moreover, the lexical labels contribute to the descriptive capabilities of the topological maps. The proposal has been evaluated using the KTH-IDOL 2 data-set, which consists of image sequences acquired within an indoor environment under three different lighting conditions. The generality of the procedure as well as the descriptive capabilities of the generated maps validate the proposal.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government, supported with Feder funds, under grant DPI2013-40534-R and TIN2015-66972-C5-2-R; Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes of the JCCM regional government under project PPII-2014- 015-P. José Carlos Rangel is also funded by the IFARHU of the Republic of Panamá under grant 8- 2014-166

Bootstrapping bilinear models of robotic sensorimotor cascades

We consider the bootstrapping problem, which consists in learning a model of the agent's sensors and actuators starting from zero prior information, and we take the problem of servoing as a cross-modal task to validate the learned models. We study the class of bilinear dynamics sensors, in which the derivative of the observations are a bilinear form of the control commands and the observations themselves. This class of models is simple yet general enough to represent the main phenomena of three representative robotics sensors (field sampler, camera, and range-finder), apparently very different from one another. It also allows a bootstrapping algorithm based on hebbian learning, and that leads to a simple and bioplausible control strategy. The convergence properties of learning and control are demonstrated with extensive simulations and by analytical arguments