A new approach to robot location by a conic object

In this paper, a new approach to the determination of robot location using a conic object is proposed. Any object with a conic section can be used for robot location in the approach, as long as the size of the object is known in advance. The solution provided by this approach can be computed analytically. The merits of this solution make the proposed approach more practical for general applications than other approaches requiring iterating computation. To derive the robot location including the position and the orientation parameters, only a monocular image of a conic object is required. Owing to the full linearity of the derivation, this approach can achieve high speed requirements. Experimental results, with mean errors less than 5%, prove the feasibility of the proposed approach. Error analysis that is useful for choosing better view angles to obtain more accurate location is also included.