• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
• /
• 제5권6호
• /
• pp.663-673
• /
• 2007

This paper presents a new moving obstacle detection method using an optical flow in mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera. Because an omnidirectional camera consists of a nonlinear mirror and CCD camera, the optical flow pattern in omnidirectional image is different from the pattern in perspective camera. The geometry characteristic of an omnidirectional camera has influence on the optical flow in omnidirectional image. When a mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera moves, the optical flow is not only theoretically calculated in omnidirectional image, but also investigated in omnidirectional and panoramic images. In this paper, the panoramic image is generalized from an omnidirectional image using the geometry of an omnidirectional camera. In particular, Focus of expansion (FOE) and focus of contraction (FOC) vectors are defined from the estimated optical flow in omnidirectional and panoramic images. FOE and FOC vectors are used as reference vectors for the relative evaluation of optical flow. The moving obstacle is turned out through the relative evaluation of optical flows. The proposed algorithm is tested in four motions of a mobile robot including straight forward, left turn, right turn and rotation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by the experimental results.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 제어로봇시스템학회 2002년도 ICCAS
• /
• pp.37.6-37
• /
• 2002

Omnidirectional mobile robots are capable of arbitrary motion in an arbitrary direction without changing the direction of wheels, because they can perform 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) motion on a 2-dimensional plane. In this research, a new class of an omnidirectional mobile robot is proposed. Since it has synchronously steerable omnidirectional wheels, it is called an omnidirectional mobile robot with steerable omnidirectional wheels (OMR-SOW). It has 3 DOFs in motion and one DOF in steering. One steering DOF can function as a continuously variable transmission (CVT). CVT of the OMR-SOW increases the range of velocity ratio from the wheel velocities to robot velocity, which may improve...

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
• /
• 제11권8호
• /
• pp.696-703
• /
• 2005

Since most autonomous mobile robots are powered by a battery, it is important to increase the continuous operating time without recharging. This can be achieved by improving the energy efficiency of a mobile robot, but little research on energy efficiency has been performed. This paper proposes two methods for improving the energy efficiency of an omnidirectional mobile robot.. One method is to realize a continuously variable transmission (CVT) by adopting the mechanism of steerable omnidirectional wheels. The other is the proposed steering algorithm in which wheel arrangement of the mobile robot is continuously adjusted so as to obtain the maximum energy efficiency of the motors during navigation. In addition, new omnidirectional wheels which can be transformed to the conventional wheels depending on the driving conditions are proposed to compensate for less efficient omnidirectional drive mode. Various tests show that motion control of the OMR-SOW works satisfactorily and the proposed steering algorithm for CVT can provide higher energy efficiency than the algorithm using a fixed steering angle. In addition, it is shown that the differential drive mode can give better energy efficiency than the omnidirectional drive mode.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
• /
• 제18권5호
• /
• pp.479-486
• /
• 2012

In this paper, a ranging system is proposed that is able to measure 360 degree omnidirectional distances to environment objects. The ranging system is based on the structured light imaging system with catadioptric omnidirectional mirror. In order to make the ranging system robust against environmental illumination, efficient structured light image processing algorithms are developed; sequential integration of difference images with modulated structured light and radial search based on Bresenham line drawing algorithm. A dedicated FPGA image processor is developed to speed up the overall image processing. Also the distance equation is derived in the omnidirectional imaging system with a hyperbolic mirror. It is expected that the omnidirectional ranging system is useful for mapping and localization of mobile robot. Experiments are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed ranging system.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
• /
• 제16권8호
• /
• pp.751-755
• /
• 2010

In this paper, we proposed an omnidirectional ranging system that is able to obtain $360^{\circ}$ all directional distances effectively based on structured light image. The omnidirectional ranging system consists of laser structured light source and a catadioptric omnidirectional camera with a curved mirror. The proposed integro-differential structured light image processing algorithm makes the ranging system robust against environmental illumination condition. The omnidirectional ranging system is useful for map-building and self-localization of a mobile robot.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
• /
• 제7권2호
• /
• pp.145-149
• /
• 2006

본 논문에서는 RFID 태그용 UHF밴드 전방향성 안테나를 설계하였다. 전방향 방사특성과 소형화를 위해서 로딩 다이폴을 교차시키는 방법과 구부리진 다이폴을 교차시키는 방법을 나타내었다. 다이폴 간의 급전 위상차를 90도 되게 급전함으로써 E면 방사패턴이 전방향 특성을 갖도록 하였다. 마일라 재질 위에 칩 입력임피던스와 공액 정합되도록 구현한 3종류 안테나에 대한 반사특성은 -10 dB 기준으로 670-1,050 MHz, 700-1,250 MHz 및 600-1,020 MHz의 광대역 특성을 얻었다. E면 및 H면 모두가 무지향인 전방향 방사특성을 보였다.

• 로봇학회논문지
• /
• 제3권2호
• /
• pp.91-98
• /
• 2008

This paper describes the recognition method of moving objects in mobile robot with an omnidirectional camera. The moving object is detected using the specific pattern of an optical flow in omnidirectional image. This paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the pattern of an optical flow is investigated in omnidirectional image. The optical flow in omnidirectional image is influenced on the geometry characteristic of an omnidirectional camera. The pattern of an optical flow is theoretically and experimentally investigated. In the second part, the detection of moving objects is presented from the estimated optical flow. The moving object is extracted through the relative evaluation of optical flows which is derived from the pattern of optical flow. In particular, Focus-Of-Expansion (FOE) and Focus-Of-Contraction (FOC) vectors are defined from the estimated optical flow. They are used as reference vectors for the relative evaluation of optical flows. The proposed algorithm is performed in four motions of a mobile robot such as straight forward, left turn, right turn and rotation. Experimental results using real movie show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
• /
• 제10권6호
• /
• pp.10-17
• /
• 2010

본 논문은 전방향 스테레오 카메라를 이용한 거리 측정을 위해 반드시 수행되어야 하는 전방향 카메라의 교정방법에 관해 기술한다. 전방향 스테레오 카메라의 교정에 있어서, 두 대의 전방향 카메라를 각각 독립적으로 교정하거나 두 대의 카메라의 베이스라인이 크지 않은 경우의 교정은 기존의 연구된 다양한 방법을 통해 가능하다. 그러나 전방향 스테레오 카메라를 이용하여 원거리를 측정하기 위해서는 베이스라인이 충분히 커야 하며, 충분히 큰 베이스라인은 두 대의 전방향 카메라를 동시에 교정하는 것이 매우 힘들다. 이는 두 대의 전방향 카메라에서 촬영된 교정을 위한 테스트패턴의 크기가 최소한 한 대의 전방향 카메라에서 매우 작은 크기로 나타나기 때문이다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 베이스라인이 큰 두 대의 전방향 카메라의 교정을 위한 방법을 제안하고 실험을 통해 검증한다.

• 한국게임학회 논문지
• /
• 제7권4호
• /
• pp.63-70
• /
• 2007

넓은 시야각을 갖는 전방향(omnidirectional) 카메라 시스템은 적은 수의 영상으로도 주변 장면에 대해 많은 정보를 취득할 수 있는 장점으로 감시, 3차원 해석 등의 분야에 널리 응용되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 어안(fisheye) 렌즈를 이용한 전방향 카메라로 입력된 영상으로부터 카메라의 이동 및 회전 파라미터를 자동으로 추정하는 새로운 자동보정 알고리즘이 제안되었다. 먼저, 카메라 위치를 임의의 각 도로 변환하여 얻어진 영상을 이용해 일차 매개변수로 표현된 카메라의 사영(projection)모델을 추정한다. 그리고 이후 다양하게 변환되는 카메라의 위치에 따라 에센셜(essential) 행렬을 구하며, 이 과정에서 대상 영상으로부터 적합한 인라이어(inlier) 집합을 구하기 위해 특징점이 영역 내에 분포 정도를 반영하는 표준편차(standard deviation)를 정량적(quantitative) 기준으로 이용한다. 다양한 실험을 통해 제안된 알고리즘이 전방향 카메라의 사영 모델과 회전, 이동 등의 변환 파라미터를 정확하게 추정함을 확인하였다.

• 전기전자학회논문지
• /
• 제15권1호
• /
• pp.10-14
• /
• 2011

In this paper, we present an efficient hardware architecture of unrolling image mapper of catadioptric omnidirectional imaging systems. The catadioptric omnidirectional imaging systems generate images of 360 degrees of view and need to be transformed into panorama images in rectangular coordinate. In most application, it has to perform the panorama unrolling in real-time and at low-cost, especially for high-resolution images. The proposed hardware architecture adopts a software/hardware cooperative structure and employs several optimization schemes using look-up-table(LUT) of coordinate conversion. To avoid the on-line division operation caused by the coordinate transformation algorithm, the proposed architecture has the LUT which has pre-computed division factors. And then, the amount of memory used by the LUT is reduced to 1/4 by using symmetrical characteristic compared with the conventional architecture. Experimental results show that the proposed hardware architecture achieves an effective real-time performance and lower implementation cost, and it can be applied to other kinds of catadioptric omnidirectional imaging systems.