Estimation of free space for the mobile robot using omnidirectional image sensor COPIS

The authors propose a new omnidirectional image sensor using a conic mirror for navigation of a mobile robot. The azimuth of each point in the scene appears in the image as its direction from the image center. Under the assumption of known motion of the robot, locations of the object´s edge points around the robot can be estimated by detecting their azimuth changes in the image. The authors describe a method for recognition of surfaces from the edge data and for estimation of the free space using the azimuth information in the image sequence. Assuming the known motions of the robot, the surfaces of the objects can be recognized and the free space for the mobile robot can be estimated from the geometrical relation between object points in the image. Experimental results indicate that the system is a useful sensor for robot navigation