A corridors lights based navigation system including path definition using a topologically corrected map for indoor mobile robots

Proposes an indoor navigation system for an autonomous mobile robot including the teaching of its environment. The self-localization of the vehicle is done by detecting the pose of corridor fluorescent tubes with a camera pointing to the ceiling. A map of the lights based on odometry and used later for navigation tasks is first built by remotely controlling the robot. The map distortion due to positioning errors is corrected to facilitate route definition by detecting and closing open cycles extremities. Paths defined on the modified map whose geometry differs from the robot one are then converted automatically into the robot map so that the robot can refer to it and cancel odometry errors during navigation.