Mobile Robot Sensor Fusion Using Flies

The “fly algorithm” is a fast artificial evolution-based image processing technique. Previous work has shown how to process stereo image sequences and use the evolving population of “flies” as a continuously updated representation of the scene for obstacle avoidance in a mobile robot. In this paper, we show that it is possible to use several sensors providing independent information sources on the surrounding scene and the robot’s position, and fuse them through the introduction of corresponding additional terms into the fitness function. This sensor fusion technique keeps the main properties of the fly algorithm: asynchronous processing. no low-level image pre-processing or costly image segmentation, fast reaction to new events in the scene. Simulation test results are presented.