自律移動ロボットのための二次元LRFの計測特性を考慮したEmpty確率分布

抄録

A wide range of accurate environmental information is needed in order for autonomous mobile robots to move safely. An intelligent space, which contains multiple sensors attached to the environment, is useful for information provision. Many optical sensors such as Laser Range Finders (LRFs) are placed to monitor fixed areas. But, LRFs occasionally miss objects due to distance attenuation of lasers, irregular reflection of lasers, and gaps between lasers. Thus, possibility of these detection failures of LRFs should be considered. In this paper, a novel measurement model with properties of the two-dimensional LRFs is constructed, and the empty probability distribution created by the model are proposed. We set two-dimensional LRFs up on a roadside, and calculated an empty probability distribution to evaluate the utility of the proposed model. In addition, since intelligent spaces often contain multiple LRFs, data measured from different viewpoints can be fused to improve data accuracy. We also evaluated sensor-fusion of multiple empty probability distributions obtained from individual LRFs. The fusion result grasps a location at which a detection failure of LRF has occurred. The usefulness of the proposed method was confirmed in our experimental evaluation.