Mobile robot localization is the problem of determining a robot's pose from sensor data. This article presents a family of probabilistic localization algorithms known as Monte Carlo Localization (MCL). MCL algorithms represent a robot's belief by a set of weighted hypotheses (samples), which approximate the posterior under a common Bayesian formulation of the localization problem. Building on the basic MCL algorithm, this article develops a more robust algorithm called MixtureMCL, which integrates two complimentary ways of generating samples in the estimation. To apply this algorithm to mobile robots equipped with range finders, a kernel density tree is learned that permits fast sampling. Systematic empirical results illustrate the robustness and computational efficiency of the approach.

Localization, that is the estimation of a robot's location from sensor data, is a fundamental problem in mobile robotics. This papers presents a version of Markov localization which provides accurate position estimates and which is tailored towards dynamic environments. The key idea of Markov localization is to maintain a probability density over the space of all locations of a robot in its environment. Our approach represents this space metrically, using a ne-grained grid to approximate densities. It is able to globally localize the robot from scratch and to recover from localization failures. It is robust to approximate models of the environment (such as occupancy grid maps) and noisy sensors (such as ultrasound sensors). Our approach also includes a ltering technique which allows a mobile robot to reliably estimate its position even in densely populated environments in which crowds of people block the robot's sensors for extended periods of time. The method described he...

This paper presents a new algorithm for mobile robot localization, called Monte Carlo Localization (MCL). MCL is a version of Markov localization, a family of probabilistic approaches that have recently been applied with great practical success. However, previous approaches were either computationally cumbersome (such as grid-based approaches that represent the state space by high-resolution 3D grids), or had to resort to extremely coarse-grained resolutions. Our approach is computationally efficient while retaining the ability to represent (almost) arbitrary distributions. MCL applies sampling-based methods for approximating probability distributions, in a way that places computation " where needed." The number of samples is adapted on-line, thereby invoking large sample sets only when necessary. Empirical results illustrate that MCL yields improved accuracy while requiring an order of magnitude less computation when compared to previous approaches. It is also much easier to implement...

This article describes the software architecture of an autonomous, interactive tour-guide robot. It presents a modular and distributed software architecture, which integrates localization, mapping, collision avoidance, planning, and various modules concerned with user interaction and Web-based telepresence. At its heart, the software approach relies on probabilistic computation, on-line learning, and any-time algorithms. It enables robots to operate safely, reliably, and at high speeds in highly dynamic environments, and does not require any modifications of the environment to aid the robot's operation. Special emphasis is placed on the design of interactive capabilities that appeal to people's intuition. The interface provides new means for human-robot interaction with crowds of people in public places, and it also provides people all around the world with the ability to establish a "virtual telepresence" using the Web. To illustrate our approach, results are reported obtained in mid-...

This article describes a methodology for programming robots known as probabilistic robotics. The probabilistic paradigm pays tribute to the inherent uncertainty in robot perception, relying on explicit representations of uncertainty when determining what to do. This article surveys some of the progress in the field, using in-depth examples to illustrate some of the nuts and bolts of the basic approach. Our central conjecture is that the probabilistic approach to robotics scales better to complex real-world applications than approaches that ignore a robot's uncertainty.

We proposea framework for robot programming which allows the seamless integration of explicit agent programming with decision-theoretic planning. Specifically, the DTGolog model allows one to partially specify a control program in a highlevel, logical language, and provides an interpreter that, given a logical axiomatization of a domain, will determine the optimal completion of that program (viewed as a Markov decision process). We demonstrate the utility of this model with results obtained in an office delivery robotics domain. 1 Introduction The construction of autonomous agents, such as mobile robots or software agents, is paramount in artificial intelligence, with considerable research devoted to methods that will ease the burden of designing controllers for such agents. There are two main ways in which the conceptual complexity of devising controllers can be managed. The first is to provide languages with which a programmer can specify a control program with relative eas...

This article describes a family of methods, known as Monte Carlo localization (MCL) (Dellaert at al. 1999b, Fox et al. 1999b). The MCL algorithm is a particle filter combined with probabilistic models of robot perception and motion. Building on this, we will describe a variation of MCL which uses a different proposal distribution (a mixture distribution) that facilitates fast recovery from global localization failures. As we will see, this proposal distribution has a range of advantages over that used in standard MCL, but it comes at the price that it is more difficult to implement, and it requires an algorithm for sampling poses from sensor measurements, which might be difficult to obtain. Finally, we will present an extension of MCL to cooperative multi-robot localization of robots that can perceive each other during localization. All these approaches have been tested thoroughly in practice. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate their relative strengths and weaknesses in practical robot applications.

One of the goals in the field of mobile robotics is the development of mobile platforms which operate in populated environments. For many tasks it is therefore highly desirable that a robot can track the positions of the humans in its surrounding. In this paper we introduce sample-based joint probabilistic data association filters as a new algorithm to track multiple moving objects. Our method applies Bayesian filtering to adapt the tracking process to the number of objects in the perceptual range of the robot. The approach has been implemented and tested on a real robot using laser-range data. We present experiments illustrating that our algorithm is able to robustly keep track of multiple persons. The experiments furthermore show that the approach outperforms other techniques developed so far.

Abstract – This paper provides a set of definitions that form a framework for describing the types of awareness that humans have of robot activities and the knowledge that robots have of the commands given them by humans. As a case study, we applied this human-robot interaction (HRI) awareness framework to our analysis of the HRI approaches used at an urban search and rescue competition. We determined that most of the critical incidents (e.g., damage done by robots to the test arena) were directly attributable to lack of one or more kinds of HRI awareness.

Monte Carlo localization (MCL) is a Bayesian algorithm for mobile robot localization based on particle filters, which has enjoyed great practical success. This paper points out a limitation of MCL which is counter-intuitive, namely that better sensors can yield worse results. An analysis of this problem leads to the formulation of a new proposal distribution for the Monte Carlo sampling step. Extensive experimental results with physical robots suggest that the new algorithm is significantly more robust and accurate than plain MCL. Obviously, these results transcend beyond mobile robot localization and apply to a range of particle filter applications.