TY - GEN
T1 - Descending-stair detection, approach, and traversal with an autonomous tracked vehicle
AU - Hesch, Joel A.
AU - Mariottini, Gian Luca
AU - Roumeliotis, Stergios
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - This paper presents a strategy for descending-stair detection, approach, and traversal using inertial sensing and a monocular camera mounted on an autonomous tracked vehicle. At the core of our algorithm are vision modules that exploit texture energy, optical flow, and scene geometry (lines) in order to robustly detect descending stairwells during both far- and near-approaches. As the robot navigates down the stairs, it estimates its three-degrees-of-freedom (d.o.f.) attitude by fusing rotational velocity measurements from an on-board tri-axial gyroscope with line observations of the stair edges detected by its camera. We employ a centering controller, derived based on a linearized dynamical model of our system, in order to steer the robot along safe trajectories. A real-time implementation of the described algorithm was developed for an iRobot Packbot, and results from real-world experiments are presented.
AB - This paper presents a strategy for descending-stair detection, approach, and traversal using inertial sensing and a monocular camera mounted on an autonomous tracked vehicle. At the core of our algorithm are vision modules that exploit texture energy, optical flow, and scene geometry (lines) in order to robustly detect descending stairwells during both far- and near-approaches. As the robot navigates down the stairs, it estimates its three-degrees-of-freedom (d.o.f.) attitude by fusing rotational velocity measurements from an on-board tri-axial gyroscope with line observations of the stair edges detected by its camera. We employ a centering controller, derived based on a linearized dynamical model of our system, in order to steer the robot along safe trajectories. A real-time implementation of the described algorithm was developed for an iRobot Packbot, and results from real-world experiments are presented.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78651480033&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=78651480033&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/IROS.2010.5649411
DO - 10.1109/IROS.2010.5649411
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:78651480033
SN - 9781424466757
T3 - IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2010 - Conference Proceedings
SP - 5525
EP - 5531
BT - IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2010 - Conference Proceedings
T2 - 23rd IEEE/RSJ 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2010
Y2 - 18 October 2010 through 22 October 2010
ER -