A comparison of two methods for fusing information from a linear array of sonar sensors for obstacle localization

Date
1995
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems: Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots, IEEE 1995
Print ISSN
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
IEEE
Volume
Issue
Pages
536 - 541
Language
English
Type
Conference Paper
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

The performance of a commonly employed linear array of sonar sensors is assessed for point-obstacle localization intended for robotics applications. Two different methods of combining time-of-flight information from the sensors are described to estimate the range and azimuth of the obstacle: pairwise estimate method and the maximum likelihood estimator. The variances of the methods are compared to the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound, and their biases are investigated. Simulation studies indicate that in estimating range, both methods perform comparably; in estimating azimuth, maximum likelihood estimate is superior at a cost of extra computation. The results are useful for target localization in mobile robotics.

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Book Title
Keywords
Collision avoidance, Computational methods, Computer simulation, Mobile robots, Motion control, Parameter estimation, Sensors, Sonar, Cramer-Rao lower bound method, Maximum likelihood estimator, Obstacle localization, Pairwise estimate method, Sonar sensors, Sensor data fusion
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)