Concurrent visual navigation and localisation using inverse perspective transformation

A low-cost, simple and efficient approach to reactive visual navigation addressed to mobile robots, complemented with an accurate localisation algorithm´ is presented. The system is mainly supported on the continuous detection and tracking of image features which are classified as obstacle or ground points using the inverse perspective transformation. While obstacle points are used for collision avoidance, ground points are used for localisation in a Rao-Blackwellised particle filter context. Results obtained from experiments conducted indoors and outdoors illustrate the wide range of scenarios where the technique can be successfully employed.