Mobile robot localization using a single image

Following and extending the approach of K. Sugihara (1988), the author assumes that a mobile robot is equipped with a single camera and a map marking the positions in its environment of landmarks. The robot moves on a flat surface, acquires one image, extracts vertical edges from it, and computes the directions to visible landmarks. The problem is to determine the robot´s position and orientation (pose) by establishing the correspondence between landmark directions and points in the map. This approach capitalizes on the excellent angular resolution of standard CCD cameras, while avoiding the feature-correspondence and 3D reconstruction problems. The problem is formulated as a search in a tree of interpretations (pairings of landmark directions and landmark points), and an algorithm to search the tree efficiently to determine the solution poses(s) is developed, taking into account errors in the landmark directions extracted by image processing. Quantitative results from simulations and experiments with real imagery are presented