Map assisted vision system of mobile robots for reckoning in a building environment

The authors have constructed a self-contained intelligent robot on which ultrasonic range finders are installed. A sensory system with sensing ability appears necessary; the authors propose a vision system for a mobile robot that meets real time requirements. In the vision system, a color image provids actual image information and map information is also utilized for reckoning in a building environment. The key point is that matching between image and map information is performed by using highly abstracted information from the image and also from the map. The constitution of the vision system and experimental results are described.