Mobile robot localization using infrared light reflecting landmarks

To achieve autonomous mobile robot navigation, accurate localization technique is the fundamental issue that should be addressed. This paper presents mobile robot localization using infrared reflective artificial landmarks. In order to minimize the disturbance to the user and to provide the ease of installation, the passive landmarks are used. The landmarks are made of coated film which reflects the infrared light efficiently. Infrared light is not visible, but the camera can capture the reflected infrared light. Once the artificial landmark is identified, the robot’s relative position/orientation is estimated with respect to the landmark. In order to reduce the number of the required artificial landmarks for a given environment, the pan-tilt mechanism is developed together with the distortion correction algorithm.