Camera based Navigation by Mobile Robots

The most important property of a mobile robot is the§fact that it is mobile. How to give a robot the§skills required to navigate around its environment is§therefore an important topic in mobile robotics.§Navigation, both for robots and humans, typically§involves a map. The map can be used, for example, to§estimate a pose based on observations (localisation)§or determine a suitable path between to locations.§Maps are available nowadays for us humans with few§exceptions, however, maps suitable for mobile robots§rarely exists. In addition, to relate sensor readings§to a map requires that the map content and the§observation is compatible, i.e. different robots may§require different maps for the same area. This book§addresses some of the fundamental problems related to§mobile robot navigation (registration, localisation§and mapping) using cameras as the primary sensor§input. Small salient regions (local§visual features) are extracted from each camera§image, where each region can be seen as a§fingerprint. Many fingerprint matches implicates a§high likelihood that they corresponding images§originate from a similar location, which is a central§property utilised in this work.