Mixed Marker-Based/Marker-Less Visual Odometry System for Mobile Robots

Abstract

When moving in generic indoor environments, robotic platforms generally rely solely on information provided by onboard sensors to determine their position and orientation. However, the lack of absolute references often leads to the introduction of severe drifts in estimates computed, making autonomous operations really hard to accomplish. This paper proposes a solution to alleviate the impact of the above issues by combining two vision-based pose estimation techniques working on relative and absolute coordinate systems, respectively. In particular, the unknown ground features in the images that are captured by the vertical camera of a mobile platform are processed by a vision-based odometry algorithm, which is capable of estimating the relative frame-to-frame movements. Then, errors accumulated in the above step are corrected using artificial markers displaced at known positions in the environment. The markers are framed from time to time, which allows the robot to maintain the drifts bounded by additionally providing it with the navigation commands needed for autonomous flight. Accuracy and robustness of the designed technique are demonstrated using an off-the-shelf quadrotor via extensive experimental tests.

Marker-based tracking with unmanned aerial vehicles

“…As with marker-less methods, closed-loop navigation systems commonly rely on data fusion of inertial sensors and high-delay vision system [15]. GPS and marker-less methods are often combined with marker-based tracking to compensate for inaccuracies and drift [16]. Similar to our use cases, Gonzalez et al [17] describe the AR.Drone autonomous path and navigation planning through a set of rings, with a world model estimated from their relative poses.…”

A quadrocopter automatic control contest as an example of interdisciplinary design education

“…Regarding this, we apply a marker-based strategy for the contest. GPS and marker-less methods are often combined with marker-based tracking to compen sate for inaccuracies and drift [16]. Similar to our task, Gonzalez et al [17] describe the AR.Drone autonomous path and navigation planning through a set of rings, with an absolute world model estimated from the relative poses of the rings.…”

Remote‐controlled robotic platform ORPHEUS as a new tool for detection of bacteria in the environment

“…Recently it can be observed that the interest in 3D printing technology for manufacturing of flow chip and equipment has been growing [28][29][30][31]. Described technology (lab-on-a-chip) can be extended to the mobile platform (lab-on-a-robot) [26,32,33]. More recently, the first integrated system capable of performing remote analysis of air samples using microchip-CE was presented [33].…”

“…The screenprinted electrodes (SPEs) can be used as a suitable detectors in CE microchips [34]. Thus, the technology becomes more accessible in new robotic controls and applications are developed [32,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”