TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a visual odometry system for a wheeled robot on loose soil using a telecentric camera
AU - Nagatani, Keiji
AU - Ikeda, Ayako
AU - Ishigami, Genya
AU - Yoshida, Kazuya
AU - Nagai, Isaku
N1 - Funding Information:
Genya Ishigami received the ME and PhD degrees from Tohoku University, Japan, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. He has been a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, from 2006 to 2008. He is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the areas of mobility analysis including vehicle–terrain interaction mechanics, design, planning and control for application to planetary exploration rovers, rescue robots and field robots.
PY - 2010/5/1
Y1 - 2010/5/1
N2 - In this paper, the development of a three-dimensional (3-D) odometry system for wheeled robots on loose soil in an application of planetary exploration is described. When a wheeled robot operates in a slippery environment, visual odometry, which is used to obtain flow images of the ground with a CCD camera, is effective for the measurement of motion because it is a non-contact method. However, in the target condition, a measurement result with a conventional camera is not reliable with this method because the viewing area of the ground varies as a result of the changing distance between the camera and the ground as a result of the wheels sinking in loose soil. To solve this problem, we used a telecentric camera for visual odometry. The lens of the camera robustly maintains the same field of view, regardless of the distance between the camera and the ground. Using the camera, we developed a (3-D) odometry system for our mobile robot to enable its positioning and navigation, and we validated the system with several experiments. In this paper, a structure and a performance test of the developed system is described. After that, the results of experiments in indoor (sandbox) and outdoor (seashore) environments are introduced.
AB - In this paper, the development of a three-dimensional (3-D) odometry system for wheeled robots on loose soil in an application of planetary exploration is described. When a wheeled robot operates in a slippery environment, visual odometry, which is used to obtain flow images of the ground with a CCD camera, is effective for the measurement of motion because it is a non-contact method. However, in the target condition, a measurement result with a conventional camera is not reliable with this method because the viewing area of the ground varies as a result of the changing distance between the camera and the ground as a result of the wheels sinking in loose soil. To solve this problem, we used a telecentric camera for visual odometry. The lens of the camera robustly maintains the same field of view, regardless of the distance between the camera and the ground. Using the camera, we developed a (3-D) odometry system for our mobile robot to enable its positioning and navigation, and we validated the system with several experiments. In this paper, a structure and a performance test of the developed system is described. After that, the results of experiments in indoor (sandbox) and outdoor (seashore) environments are introduced.
KW - Mobile robot positioning
KW - Telecentric camera
KW - Visual odometry
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U2 - 10.1163/016918610X501282
DO - 10.1163/016918610X501282
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77953204740
SN - 0169-1864
VL - 24
SP - 1149
EP - 1167
JO - Advanced Robotics
JF - Advanced Robotics
IS - 8-9
ER -