A deformable model-based visual system for mobile robot topologic navigation

Deformable models have been intensively studied in image analysis through the last decade, and are used for detection and recognition of flexible or rigid templates under diverse viewing conditions. Genetic algorithm (GA) based deformable models are used for generic visual landmark detection and interpretation. The developed system allows topologic localization and navigation using natural and artificial landmarks, exploiting deformable models´ ability for handling landmark perspective variations. The resulting perception module has been integrated successfully in a complex navigation system. Various experimental results in real environments are presented on this paper, showing the effectiveness and capacity of the landmark detection and reading system.