Mobile Robots with Panoramic Sensors
Antonis Argyros, Dimitris P. Tsakiris, Cédric Groyer · 2004
n its continuous attempt to build intelligent artificial creatures, robotics has oftenbeen inspired by nature. Particularly interesting is the remarkable variety of light-sensing structures and information processing strategies occurring in animal visualsystems. The physiology of these systems appears to have been influenced, throughevolution, by the ecological niche and lifestyle of each animal species. Insects suchas bees, ants, and flies have become a particularly appealing source of inspirationbecause of the remarkable navigational capabilities they display, despite their relativelyrestricted neural system. This, apparently, forced them to develop solutions to naviga-tion tasks, which are ingenious in their simplicity and robust in their implementation,both of which are invaluable characteristics for robotic systems.The navigation task examined in this work is the centering behavior, whichconsists of moving in the middle of a corridor-like environment. Bees are able toaccomplish similar tasks by exploiting three features of their visuo-motor sys-tem: the wide field of view of their eyes, their ability to estimate retinalmotion, and a control mechanism that reorients their flight so that retinalmotion in the two eyes remains balanced [1].Inspired by this biological solution, we attempt to create a reactive,vision-based centering behavior for a nonholonomic mobile robotequipped with a panoramic camera, providing a 360