Position Calibration of a Mobile Robot Based on 3D Vision

This paper proposes a new approach to mobile robot navigation using 3D vision and artificial landmarks. The Photo Mixer Device (PMD) technology, working on the principle of time of flight (TOF), provides the capability for the position calibration of a mobile robot in an indoor environment. In this work, the PMD camera, which provides a distance value for each pixel, results in an innovation in the design of landmarks and it enables 3D object recognition without the requirement of gathering an image database using upper and lower pixel processing. Parallel to global localization, the robot and its heading position obtained from landmark recognition is calibrated and hence accumulated errors from dead reckoning and gyro drift are eliminated.