Map based navigation of the mobile robot using omnidirectional image sensor COPIS

The authors propose a novel omnidirectional image sensor, COPIS (Conic Projection Image Sensor), for guiding the navigation of a mobile robot. It performs passive sensing of the omnidirectional image of the environment in real time (at the frame rate of a TV camera) using a conic mirror. COPIS is a suitable sensor for visual navigation in the real-world environment with moving objects. The authors describe a method for estimating the location and the motion of the robot by detecting the azimuth of each object in the omnidirectional image. In this method, the azimuth is matched with the given environmental map. They also present a method to avoid collision against unknown obstacles and estimate their locations by detecting their azimuth changes while the robot is moving in the environment. Using the COPIS system, several experiments in the real world were performed