Active range sensing for mobile robot localization

Artur Ars enio and M. Isabel Ribeiro Instituto Superior T ecnico/Instituto de Sistemas e Rob otica Av. Rovisco Pais 1 P 1096 Lisboa Codex, PORTUGAL faaa,[email protected] Phone: +351-1-8418059 Fax: +351-1-8418291 Abstract This paper presents an active scheme for the localization of a mobile robot based on the detection of natural landmarks of structured or semi-structured environments. The method is based on range data provided by a Laser Range Finder combined with odometric information. Assuming that a 3D model of the environment is known a priori, the optimal choice of the landmark for localization is supported on a new strategy for 3D map partition. The active perception reasoning of the environment for the choice of natural landmarks yields high updating rates of the location estimates. Good localization accuracy is achieved by Kalman ltering based algorithms.