The Specifiability Requirement in Mobile Robot Self-Localization

In last years, Simultaneous Localization And Mapping techniques monopolize research in mobile robot self-localization, especially in the civilian, Service Robotics domain. In this paper we argue that techniques derived from the industrial scenario, in particular beacon-based triangulation systems, should be taken into considerations even for civilian applications whenever we deem important to provide accurate, a priori specifications about the system behavior in a generic, yet untested environment. The paper provides an analytical expression of sensitivity to errors for triangulation depending on the system geometry

GPS-based localization for a surveillance UGV in outdoor areas

The ANSER project (Airport Night Surveillance Expert Robot) is described, exploiting a mobile robot for autonomous surveillance in civilian airports and similar wide outdoor areas. The paper focuses on the localization subsystem of the patrol robot: in contrast with most approaches in literature, we show how a positioning subsystem composed exclusively of a non-differential GPS unit (i.e., without inertial sensors) is enough to ensure accurate estimates of the robot's position and orientation, under the assumption of non-holonomic kinematics

An Augmented State Vector Approach to GPS-Based Localization

The ANSER project (Airport Night Surveillance Expert Robot) is described, exploiting a mobile robot for autonomous surveillance in civilian airports and similar wide outdoor areas. The paper focuses on the localization subsystem of the patrolling robot, composed of a non-differential GPS unit and a laser rangefinder for map-based localization (inertial sensors are absent). Moreover, it shows that an augmented state vector approach and an Extended Kalman filter can be successfully employed to estimate the colored components in GPS noise, thus getting closer to the conditions for the EKF to be applicable

A multi-robot coordination system based on RFID technology

This paper presents a novel approach for multi-robot coordination based both on coordinated navigation and task allocation method.The proposed approach exploits RFID technology for implementing a context aware information system which is the base of the coordination strategies; it has extremely low requirements in terms of computational power and does not require direct robot-robot communication.Moreover, an ad hoc agent based control architecture is defined to implement the proposed coordination mechanisms on robots in both simulation and real applications

A Minimalist Approach to Path Following among Unknown Obstacles

The article proposes a feedback control system for path following in presence of obstacles that is an extension of previous work and is made of two components: (i) a sensor-based, real-time model that generates and periodically updates the path on-line in order to avoid both known and unforeseen obstacles, and (ii) a feedback-control model that is capable of driving a unicycle vehicle along the collision free path. The system has some unique characteristics, among which it requires very few computational resources as a consequence of its extreme simplicity