Optimal arrangement of ceiling cameras for home service robots using genetic algorithms

In the near future robots will be used in home environments to provide assistance for the elderly and challenged people. As home environments are complicated, external sensors like ceiling cameras need to be placed on the environment to provide the robot with information about its position. The pose of cameras influences the area covered by the cameras, as well as the error of the robot localization. We examine the problem of the finding the arrangement of ceiling cameras at home environments that maximizes the area covered and minimizes the localization error. Genetic algorithms are proposed for the single and multi-objective optimization problem. Simulation results indicate that we can obtain the optimal arrangement of cameras that satisfies the given objectives and the required constraints.