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Robust DOA estimation and target docking for mobile robots

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Abstract

Direction of arrival (DOA) guided automated target acquisition and docking system is proposed for mobile robots employing the dual-directional antenna system. The dual-directional antenna estimates the DOA of the signal of interest using the ratio of the signal strengths between two adjacent antennas. In practice, DOA estimation poses a significant technical challenge, since the RF signal is easily distorted by the environmental conditions. Therefore, the robot often loses its way in an electromagnetically disturbed environment. To cope with this problem, a robust DOA estimation algorithm is developed based on Kalman filtering. This algorithm allows the robot to reduce the potential error in the estimated DOA, and adjust the robot’s heading to the target transponder without needing to know the positions of current and previous measurements in a global coordinate system. The simulation and experiment results clearly demonstrate that the mobile robot equipped with the developed system is able to dock to a target transponder in an indoor environment partially occupied by obstacles.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ubiquitous Gwangyang and Global IT Institute, Jeollanam-do, South Korea

    Myungsik Kim

  2. School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Ishikawa, 923-1292, Japan

    Nak Young Chong

  3. Intelligent Robot Research Division, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea

    Wonpil Yu

Authors
  1. Myungsik Kim
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  2. Nak Young Chong
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  3. Wonpil Yu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nak Young Chong.

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Kim, M., Chong, N.Y. & Yu, W. Robust DOA estimation and target docking for mobile robots. Intel Serv Robotics 2, 41–51 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-008-0029-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-008-0029-0

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