Ultrasound-based Cooperative Indoor Localization for Robotic Applications

Authors

J. Schmitz, O. Peters, R. Mathar,

Abstract

        We present a real-time indoor localization system which performs cooperative localization. Our system is primarily designed for the use in autonomous robotic applications and will be deployed for the localization of team and opponent robots in the Eurobot contest. It features a custom hardware architecture that performs ranging measurements based on ultrasound signals. Infrared signals are used for synchronization of the sensor nodes during the Eurobot contest, while an RF synchronization option is available to cover larger areas. The 2018 Eurobot contest rules allow the installation of four anchor nodes at the perimeter of the playing area, mobile nodes on two team robots and additional sensor nodes on the opponent robots. This provides a typical scenario with four mobile nodes where cooperative localization is beneficial. We enable cooperative localization through ranging measurements between all four mobile nodes and a communication protocol that allows for the exchange of the measurements between the nodes. The cooperation enables the mobile nodes to perform localization when an insufficient number of anchor nodes is visible. It also improves the accuracy in situations with good anchor visibility.

More Information

Contribution to the "Infrastructure-Based (3D Localization)" category of the "Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition – IPSN 2018" by "Germany – RWTH Aachen University/Roboter Club Aachen e.V."
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/event/microsoft-indoor-localization-competition-ipsn-2018/

BibTEX Reference Entry 

@inproceedings{ScPeMa18,
	author = {Johannes Schmitz and Oliver Peters and Rudolf Mathar},
	title = "Ultrasound-based Cooperative Indoor Localization for Robotic Applications",
	booktitle = "Microsoft Indoor Localization Competition — IPSN 2018",
	address = {Porto, Portugal},
	month = Apr,
	year = 2018,
	hsb = RWTH-2018-223643,
	}

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