Single landmark based self-localization of mobile robots

In this paper we discuss landmark based absolute localization of tiny autonomous mobile robots in a known environment. Landmark features are naturally occurring as it is not allowed to modify the environment with special navigational aids. These features are sparse in our application domain and are frequently occluded by other robots. This makes simultaneous acquisition of two or more landmarks difficult. Therefore, we propose a system that requires a single landmark feature. The algorithm is based on range measurement of a single landmark from two arbitrary points whose displacement can be measured using dead-reckoning sensors. Range estimation is done with a stereo vision system. Simulation results show that the robot can localize itself if it can estimates range of the same landmark from two different position and if the displacement between the two position is known.