Autonomous navigation and localization in service mobile robotics

We address the problem of autonomous navigation and localization in indoor environments, referring in particular to the specific scenario of service mobile robotics applications. The localization system uses active beacons (i.e. active transponders distributed throughout the building) as reference points; the estimate of the position of the robot and its uncertainty, both retrieved by correcting the estimate provided by odometry through an extended Kalman filter, are fed to the navigation system in order to help the robot to plan and execute target-oriented navigation tasks while showing a reactive behavior to handle the unpredictability of the environment