Author(s)

Leonimer Flávio de Melo, João Mauricio Rosário, Almiro Franco da Silveira Junior

Department of Electrical Engineering, State University of Londrina (UEL), Londrina, Brazil.
Mechanical Engineering Faculty, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil.

In the mobile robotic systems a precise estimate of the robot pose (Cartesian [x y] position plus orientation angle theta) with the intention of the path planning optimization is essential for the correct performance, on the part of the robots, for tasks that are destined to it, especially when intention is for mobile robot autonomous navigation. This work uses a ToF (Time-of-Flight) of the RF digital signal interacting with beacons for computational triangulation in the way to provide a pose estimative at bi-dimensional indoor environment, where GPS system is out of range. It’s a new technology utilization making good use of old ultrasonic ToF methodology that takes advantage of high performance multicore DSP processors to calculate ToF of the order about ns. Sensors data like odometry, compass and the result of triangulation Cartesian estimative, are fused in a Kalman filter in the way to perform optimal estimation and correct robot pose. A mobile robot platform with differential drive and nonholonomic constraints is used as base for state space, plants and measurements models that are used in the simulations and for validation the experiments.

Mobile Robotic Systems; Path Planning; Mobile Robot Autonomous Navigation; Pose Estimation

Melo, L. , Rosário, J. and Junior, A. (2013) Mobile Robot Indoor Autonomous Navigation with Position Estimation Using RF Signal Triangulation. Positioning, 4, 20-35. doi: 10.4236/pos.2013.41004.