Mobile robot navigation in dynamic environments using omnidirectional stereo

This paper describes a mobile robot navigation method in dynamic environments. The method uses a real-time omnidirectional stereo which can obtain panoramic range information of 360 degrees. From this panoramic range information, the robot first estimates its ego-motion by comparing the current and the previous observations in order to integrate observations obtained at different positions. The uncertainty in the estimation is also calculated. Next, the robot recognizes and tracks moving obstacles. Finally, the robot plans a collision free path by a heuristic planner in space-time considering the velocity uncertainty of observed obstacles. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our method.