• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.341-348
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• 2013

A location estimation algorithm based on the sea-surface beacon is proposed in this paper. The beacon is utilized to provide ultrasonic signals to the underwater vehicles around the beacon to estimate precise position of underwater vehicles (ROV, AUV, Diver robot), which is named as USBL (Ultra Short Baseline) system. It utilizes GPS and INS data for estimating its position and adopts DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform) de-noising filter and UKF (Unscented KALMAN Filter) elaborating the position estimation. The beacon system aims at estimating the precise position of underwater vehicle by using USBL to receive the tracking signals. The most important one for the precise position estimation of underwater vehicle is estimating the position of the beacon system precisely. Since the beacon is on the sea-waves, the received GPS signals are noisy and unstable most of times. Therefore, the INS data (gyroscope sensor, accelerometer, magnetic compass) are obtained at the beacon on the sea-surface to compensate for the inaccuracy of the GPS data. The noises in the acceleration data from INS data are reduced by using DWT de-noising filter in this research. Finally the UKF localization system is proposed in this paper and the system performance is verified by real experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.674-684
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• 2011

More and more elderly and disabled people are using electric scooters instead of electric wheelchairs because of higher mobility. However, people with high levels of impairment or the elderly still have difficulties in driving the electric scooters safely. Semi-autonomous electric scooter system is one of the solutions for the safety: Either manual driving or autonomous driving can be used selectively. In this paper, we implement a semi-autonomous electric scooter system with functions of localization and path following. In order to recognize the pose of electric scooter in outdoor environments, we design an outdoor localization system based on the extended Kalman filter using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) and wheel encoders. We added an accelerometer to make the localization system adaptable to road condition. Also we propose a path following algorithm using two arcs with current pose of the electric scooter and a given path in the map. Simulation results are described to show that the proposed algorithms provide the ability to drive an electric scooter semi-autonomously. Finally, we conduct outdoor experiments to reveal the practicality of the proposed system.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.758-767
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• 2023

In this study, we introduce a loosely coupled relative position estimation method that utilizes a decentralized ultrawideband (UWB), Global Navigation Support System and inertial navigation system for flight controllers (FCs). Key obstacles to multidrone collaboration include relative position errors and the absence of communication devices. To address this, we provide an extended Kalman filter-based algorithm and module that correct distance errors by fusing UWB data acquired through random communications. Via simulations, we confirm the feasibility of the algorithm and verify its distance error correction performance according to the amount of communications. Real-world tests confirm the algorithm's effectiveness on FCs and the potential for multidrone collaboration in real environments. This method can be used to correct relative multidrone positions during collaborative transportation and simultaneous localization and mapping applications.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.239-247
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• 2022

The existing studies on the localization in the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) denied environment usually exploit low-cost MEMS IMU (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Inertial Measurement Unit) sensors to replace the GNSS signals. However, the navigation system still requires GNSS signals for the normal environment. This paper presents an integrated GNSS/INS (Inertial Navigation System) navigation system which combines GNSS and multiple IMU sensors using extended Kalman filter in partially GNSS-denied environments. The position and velocity of the INS and GNSS are used as the inputs to the integrated navigation system. The Mahalanobis distance is used for novelty detection to detect the outlier of GNSS measurements. When the abnormality is detected in GNSS signals, GNSS data is excluded from the fusion process. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a higher degree of positioning accuracy in the partially GNSS-denied environment.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.280-285
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• 2011

Recently, with the development of service robots and the concept of ubiquitous, the position estimation of mobile objects has received great interest. Some of the localization schemes are introduced, which provide the relative location of the moving objects subjected to accumulated errors. To implement a real time localization system, a new absolute position estimation method for a mobile robot in indoor environment is proposed. Design and implementation of the localization system comes from the usage of active beacon systems (based upon RFID technology). The active beacon system is composed of an RFID receiver and an ultra-sonic transmitter. The RFID receiver gets the synchronization signal from the mobile robot and the ultra-sonic transmitter sends out the traveling signal to be used for measuring the distance. Position of a mobile robot in a three dimensional space can be calculated basically from the distance information from three beacons and the absolute position information of the beacons themselves. In some case, the mobile robot can acquire the ultrasonic signals from only one or two beacons, due to the obstacles located along the moving path. In this paper, a position estimation scheme using fewer than three sensors is developed. Also, the extended Kalman filter algorithm is applied for the improvement of position estimation accuracy of the mobile robot.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.577-583
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• 2007

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is the process of building a map of an unknown environment and simultaneously localizing a robot relative to this map. SLAM is very important for the indoor navigation of a mobile robot and much research has been conducted on this subject. Although feature-based SLAM using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is widely used, it has shortcomings in that the computational complexity grows in proportion to the square of the number of features. This prohibits EKF-SLAM from operating in real time and makes it unfeasible in large environments where many features exist. This paper presents an algorithm which reduces the computational complexity of EKF-SLAM by using topological information (TI) extracted through a thinning process. The global map can be divided into local areas using the nodes of a thinning-based topological map. SLAM is then performed in local instead of global areas. Experimental results for various environments show that the performance and efficiency of the proposed EKF-SLAM/TI scheme are excellent.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1162-1179
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose indoor location tracking method using RSSI(Received Signal Strength Indicator) value received from BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon. Due to the influence of various external environmental factors, it is very difficult to improve the accuracy in indoor location tracking. In order to solve this problem, we propose a novel method of reducing the noise generated in the external environment by using a double Gaussian filter. In addition, the value of the RSSI signal generated in the BLE beacon is different for each device. In this study, we propose a method to allocate additional weights in order to compensate the intensity of signal generated in each device. This makes it possible to improve the accuracy of indoor location tracking using beacons. The experiment results show that the proposed method effectively decrease the RSSI deviation and increase location accuracy. In order to verify the usefulness of this study, we compared the Kalman filter algorithm which is widely used in signal processing. We further performed additional experiments for application area for indoor location service and find that the proposed scheme is useful for BLE-based indoor location service.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.33-39
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• 2020

This paper presents an Around View Monitoring (AVM) stop-line detection based longitudinal position correction algorithm for automated driving on urban roads. Poor positioning accuracy of low-cost GPS has many problems for precise path tracking. Therefore, this study aims to improve the longitudinal positioning accuracy of low-cost GPS. The algorithm has three main processes. The first process is a stop-line detection. In this process, the stop-line is detected using Hough Transform from the AVM camera. The second process is a map matching. In the map matching process, to find the corrected vehicle position, the detected line is matched to the stop-line of the HD map using the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) method. Third, longitudinal position of low-cost GPS is updated using a corrected vehicle position with Kalman Filter. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the Robot Operating System (ROS) environment and verified on the actual urban road driving data. Compared to low-cost GPS only, Test results show the longitudinal localization performance was improved.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.205-215
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• 2012

A GPS sensor is widely used in many areas such as navigation, or air traffic control. Particularly, the car navigation system is equipped with GPS sensor for locational information. However, when a car goes through a tunnel, forest, or built-up area, GPS receiver cannot get the enough number of satellite signals. In these situations, a GPS receiver does not reliably work. A GPS error can be formulated by sum of bias error and sensor noise. The bias error is generated by the geometric arrangement of satellites and sensor noise error is generated by the corrupted signal noise of receiver. To enhance GPS sensor accuracy, these two kinds of errors have to be removed. In this research, we make the road database which includes Road Database File (RDF). RDF includes road information such as road connection, road condition, coordinates of roads, lanes, and stop lines. Among the information, we use the stop line coordinates as a feature point to correct the GPS bias error. If the relative distance and angle of a stop line from a car are detected and the detected stop line can be associated with one of the stop lines in the database, we can measure the bias error and correct the car's location. To remove the other GPS error, sensor noise, the Kalman filter algorithm is used. Additionally, using the RDF, we can get the information of the road where the car belongs. It can be used to help the GPS correction algorithm or to give useful information to users.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2007

This paper demonstrates the development of a mobile robot for patrol. We fuse differential GPS, angle sensor and odometry data using the framework of extended Kalman filter to localize a mobile robot in outdoor environments. An important feature of road environment is the existence of curbs. So, we also propose an algorithm to find out the position of curbs from laser range finder data using Hough transform. The mobile robot builds the map of the curbs of roads and the map is used fur tracking and localization. The patrol robot system consists of a mobile robot and a control station. The mobile robot sends the image data from a camera to the control station. The remote control station receives and displays the image data. Also, the patrol robot system can be used in two modes, teleoperated or autonomous. In teleoperated mode, the teleoperator commands the mobile robot based on the image data. On the other hand, in autonomous mode, the mobile robot has to autonomously track the predefined waypoints. So, we have designed a path tracking controller to track the path. We have been able to confirm that the proposed algorithms show proper performances in outdoor environment through experiments in the road.