A single landmark based localization algorithm for non-holonomic mobile robots

This paper proposes a single landmark based localization algorithm for non-holonomic mobile robots. In the case of a unicycle robot model, the localization problem is equivalent to the system observability. Based on this observation, the proposed localization method consists in finding a vector function which depends on the measurement vector and its derivatives. In order to compute estimates of the successive derivatives of the measurement vector, we will use a numerical differentiation method. When the robot is able to only measure the relative angle between itself and the landmark in 2D case, the algorithm estimates the posture of the robot, under the hypothesis that control inputs are known. But, sometimes it is also useful to be able to estimate the control input (for example when the robot slips). This is possible with the proposed algorithm by using a landmark in dimension three. The simulation results will be given in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, these results are compared with those obtained by an Extended Kalman Filter in order to underline the advantages of the new algorithm.