Mobile Robot with Floor Tracking Device for Localization and Control

We developed a visual device that tracks floor images and calculates the movement of a camera on a mobile robot. The mobile robot has caterpillar-tread wheels and uses our visual tracking device for localization. The robot is localized and controlled in real time based on the information on the estimated position and direction using FPGA, SRAM, and a small CPU board. Location and direction error over a closed path is eliminated by searching for an original floor image memorized initially at the point from which the robot started the run. Experimental results demonstrate the advantages of the proposal using the visual tracking device localizing a mobile robot with wheel slippage and under changing light conditions. We also show that the robot runs along a closed path repeatedly without a straying from the track by using the original image to correct accumulated error.