Design and evaluation of an integrated planar localization method for desktop robotics

Localization and measurement of displacement are critical aspects to the operation and control of mobile robots. The motion of desktop robots, a class of mobile robots designed for use on a table, can be considered a special case of the general localization problem since the vehicle is primarily operated over a flat surface. Using the assumption that the motion of a desktop robot is essentially planar, this paper presents a novel method that senses the motion of two points to obtain both the position and orientation of the robot in two-dimensional space. The paper details how this method can be implemented using low-cost, off-the-shelf sensor hardware components and demonstrates its application in the Desktop-Bot, a compact desktop robot. Experimental testing validated features of this planar localization such as: estimation with minimal mean error (or drift), no external sensing hardware apparatus (i.e., on-board sensing), fast-update rates (∼50 Hz) and robustness to external occlusion.