Sonar-based localization of mobile robots using the Hough transform
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 65
Subjects: AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION; ROBOTS; ACOUSTIC NAVIGATION
Description: For an autonomous mobile robot to navigate in an unknown environment, it is essential to know the location of the robot on a real-time basis. Finding position and orientation of a mobile robot in a world coordinate system is a problem in localization. Dead-reckoning is commonly used for localization, but position and orientation errors from dead-reckoning tend to accumulate over time. The objective of this thesis is to develop a feature-based localization method that allows a mobile robot to re-calibrate its position and orientation by automatically selecting wall-like features in the environment. In this thesis, the selection of features is accomplished by applying the Hough transform to sonar data. The Hough transform makes it possible to select the optimal feature (the longest wall, in this case) without finding all possible line segments from the sonar data. A least-square line fitting method is then employed to construct a model of the line segment that represents the feature selected by the Hough transform. The algorithm developed was tested using synthetic and real sonar data. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed localization methods.
Notes: Thesis advisor, Xiaoping Yun.

AD-A331 465.

Thesis (M.S. in Engineering Science with a Major in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).