Abstract
In this paper, a new method of classification and localization of reflectors, using the time-of-flight (TOF) data obtained from ultrasonic transducers, is presented. The method of classification and localization is based on Generalized Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) applied to the TOF values obtained from a sensor that contains four ultrasound emitters and 16 receivers. Since PCA works with vectorized representations of TOF, it does not take into account the spatial locality of receivers. The GPCA works with two-dimensional representations of TOF, taking into account information on the spatial position of the receivers. This report includes a detailed description of the method of classification and localization and the results of achieved tests with three types of reflectors in 3-D environments: planes, edges, and corners. The results in terms of processing time, classification and localization were very satisfactory for the reflectors located in the range of 50–350 cm.
Highlights
The classification and localization of reflectors constitutes a fundamental task in the field of mobile robotics, since this information contributes in a decisive way to other higher level tasks, such as the generation of environment maps and the robot’s localization
The classification and localization technique for 3-D reflectors based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using an ultrasonic sensor is explicitly discussed in [7], in which it is applied to 18 TOF values originated from a sensor that contains two emitter/receiver transducers and 12 receivers
A classification algorithm based on the Generalized Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) techniques have been proposed, with which three types of basic 3-D reflectors can be classified: planes, corners, and edges
Summary
The classification and localization of reflectors constitutes a fundamental task in the field of mobile robotics, since this information contributes in a decisive way to other higher level tasks, such as the generation of environment maps and the robot’s localization. With respect to the process of reflector classification, the techniques more broadly used are based on geometric considerations obtained from the TOFs for every reflector type [1,2]. An important inconvenience of the systems based on geometric considerations is their high dependence on the precision with which the measurements of the TOFs are carried out, and the classification results are strongly influenced by noise. The classification and localization technique for 3-D reflectors based on PCA using an ultrasonic sensor is explicitly discussed in [7], in which it is applied to 18 TOF values originated from a sensor that contains two emitter/receiver transducers and 12 receivers, (see Figure 1). In [7,8,9,10,11] to reduce the number of transducers, the simultaneous emission of complementary sequences by two or more emitters is proposed
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