Landmark detection and localization for mobile robot applications: a multisensor approach

This paper describes a landmark detection and localization using an integrated laser-camera sensor. Laser range finder can be used to detect landmarks that are direction invariant in the laser data such as protruding edges in walls, edges of tables, and chairs. When such features are unavailable, the dependant processes will fail to function. However, in many instances, larger number of landmarks can be detected using computer vision. In the proposed method, camera is used to detect landmarks while the location of the landmark is measured by the laser range finder using laser-camera calibration information. Thus, the proposed method exploits the beneficial aspects of each sensor to overcome the disadvantages of the other sensor. While highlighting the drawbacks and limitations of single sensor based methods, an experimental results and important statistics are provided for the verification of the affectiveness sensor fusion method using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) as an example application.