Target Design and Recognition for 2-D Localization of Indoor Mobile Robots Using a Laser Sensor

Indoor mobile robots (IMR) can work autonomously if they have the capability to perform localization. This paper presents a design of a target that is used for laser sensor based IMR localization and an algorithm for recognizing the target in a noisy environment from the laser sensor measurements. An onboard laser sensor mounted on top of a rotary actuator is used to scan the entire front area of the IMR. The distance measurements obtained from the laser sensor are then be used to detect the uniquely designed target based on edge detection and pattern recognition techniques. This recognized target can then be used as a fiducial marker (whose global positions are known) to localize the IMR, i.e., to obtain estimates of the vehicle pose and location in a 2-D indoor environment. The target recognition method and hence the designed target is validated with experimental results.