Sensors and Methods for Mobile Robot Positioning

150 Part II Systems and Methods for Mobile Robot Positioning
Figure 5.17: Experimental results from Melboy using odometry with and without a fiber-optic gyro.
a. Actual trajectory of the robot for a triangular path.
b. Position estimation errors of the robot after completing the path of a. Black circles show the errors
without gyro; white circles show the errors with the gyro.
(Adapted from [Komoriya and Oyama, 1994].)
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More accurate odometry will reduce the requirements on absolute position updates and will
facilitate the solution of landmark and map-based positioning.
Inertial navigation systems alone are generally inadequate for periods of time that exceed a few
minutes. However, inertial navigation can provide accurate short-term information, for example
orientation changes during a robot maneuver. Software compensation, usually by means of a
Kalman filter, can significantly improve heading measurement accuracy.