Vision-based localization of a wheeled mobile robot for greenhouse applications: A daisy-chaining approach

The Euclidean position and orientation of a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) is typically required for autonomous selection and control of agricultural operations in a greenhouse. A vision-based localization scheme is formulated as a desire to identify the position and orientation of a WMR navigating in a greenhouse by utilizing the image feedback of the above-the-aisle targets from an on-board camera. An innovative daisy chaining strategy is used to find the local coordinates of the above-the-aisle targets in order to localize a WMR. In contrast to typical camera configurations used for vision-based control problems, the localization scheme in this paper is developed using a moving on-board camera viewing reseeding targets. Multi-view photogrammetric methods are used to develop relationships between different camera frames and WMR coordinate systems. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the developed geometric model.