Global Localization of a Mobile Aquatic Robot in an Indoor Environment

Localization, which is the ability of a mobile robot to estimate its position within its environment, is a key capability for autonomous operation of any mobile robot. This paper presents a system for indoor global localization of a mobile robot in a known environment based on visual and compass information. The system is based on colour detection and uses homogrphy between the image plane and the world plane to estimate the position of the robot. In this system the orientation of the robot is estimated using compass data. During localization, images of the scene are captured using the off-board cameras; Using homography and rectification, an image with frontal view of the whole pool is created. Based on the new image, the specific colour placed on the robot is detected. In this project ROS (Robot Operating System) is used to communicate with the robot. The system developed in this project was used to locate the position and orientation of a mobile aquatic robot called Kingfisher when used inside a pool. The system developed for the localization was able to successfully obtain the robot location and orientation using the mounted off-board cameras and the on-board compass.