Stabilization for mobile robot by using omnidirectional optical flow

Described here is a method for estimating rolling and swaying motions of a mobile robot from optical flows. We have proposed an image sensor with a hyperboloidal mirror for vision based navigation of the mobile robot. Its name is HyperOmni Vision. This sensing system can acquire an omnidirectional view around the robot, in real-time, with use of the hyperboloidal mirror. The radial component of optical flow in HyperOmniVision has a periodic characteristic. The circumferential component of optical flow has a symmetric characteristic. The proposed method makes use of these characteristics to estimate robustly the rolling and swaying motions of the robot