Robot navigation in outdoor environments by using GPS information and panoramic views

This paper proposes a method of robot navigation in outdoor environments by using GPS (Global Positioning System) information and panoramic views. Since an outdoor environment is very large scaled, it is very difficult to determine the global position based on a visual sensor. Although a global position can be obtained from a GPS navigator, it is difficult to locate a robot accurately since it has a distance error about 30/spl sim/100 meter. Our system is equipped with a GPS navigator and a camera. A coarse-to-fine method is used to generate an outdoor environment map and locate a mobile robot. First, a robot finds its approximate position based on the GPS information. Then, it identifies its location from the image information. Experimental results in outdoor environments show the effectiveness of this method.