Localisation and Reconstruction of Mobile Robots in Intelligent Spaces. A single camera solution

This paper presents an approach to solve a 3D tracking of mobile robots based on visual information from a fixed and calibrated camera. The proposed algorithm builds a metric model of primitives of the object structure. The approach allows a redefinition of the tracking problem into one of bayesian inference. Robot pose is the result of a sequential algorithm that searchs for a posterior distribution of robot pose and structure model given a set of fiducial points measured in the image plane. The method of correspondence between the model and measurements is supported by a joint distribution compatibility test. The proposed algorithm allows also the addition of new information into the previous model, which converts the present method into a simultaneous pose and reconstruction approach. Metric initialization is solved by combining some amount of odometry information jointly with image measurements. A Maximum Likelihood approach to initialization is described. Real results are shown using a mobile robot and a low cost camera.