Mobile robot positioning: Sensors and techniques

TLDR

Accurate vehicle positioning is a core challenge in mobile robotics, prompting the development of diverse sensors and techniques, and the field remains active with many innovative approaches continually emerging. This article reviews relevant mobile robot positioning technologies. The review categorizes positioning systems into seven groups—odometry, inertial navigation, magnetic compasses, active beacons, GPS, landmark navigation, and model matching—and discusses each category’s characteristics with illustrative technologies. The examples illustrate each category but are not endorsed or judged by the authors. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Abstract

Exact knowledge of the position of a vehicle is a fundamental problem in mobile robot applications. In search of a solution, researchers and engineers have developed a variety of systems, sensors, and techniques for mobile robot positioning. This article provides a review of relevant mobile robot positioning technologies. The article defines seven categories for positioning systems: (1) Odometry, (2) Inertial Navigation, (3) Magnetic Compasses, (4) Active Beacons, (5) Global Positioning Systems, (6) Landmark Navigation, and (7) Model Matching. The characteristics of each category are discussed and examples of existing technologies are given for each category. The field of mobile robot navigation is active and vibrant, with more great systems and ideas being developed continuously. For this reason the examples presented in this article serve only to represent their respective categories, but they do not represent a judgment by the authors. Many ingenious approaches can be found in the literature, although, for reasons of brevily, not all could be cited in this article. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.