Active Range Sensing for Mobile Robot Localization

This paper presents an active scheme for the localization of a mobile robot based on the detection of natural landmarks. Assuming that a partial 3D model of the environment is known a priori, an optimal and active choice of the landmark is supported on a new strategy for 3D map partition, yielding high updating rates of the location estimates. Good localization accuracy and robustness are achieved by combining laser range data with odometry, using Kalman filtering schemes. 1 Introduction Accurate localization is a fundamental issue in mobile robots navigation. Various factors may incurring the mobile robot in error during operation [3], and hence, reliable localization is a difficult and not yet completely solved problem. In one hand, complex environments present serious difficulties to overcome, such as dynamic and/or static unmodeled obstacles, human beings presence as well as coordination with other robots. On the other hand, inaccuracies on sensor measurements or inappropriate sen..