Localization and approaching to the human by mobile home robot

This paper introduces a robotic system that uses a PTZ camera to find the human in the room and locate its position. Then the robot is guided to go near to the human. This includes human detection and localization, robot localization and robot navigation. Human's head and face is detected by using a combination of motion detection, shape analysis and color information. The 3D position of human's head and face is estimated by using the depth from focus method. For robot localization we use a very fast measuring system that utilizes ultrasonic and infrared signals simultaneously. For robot navigation we use a map of environment consisting of doors, walls and static objects. After locating human and robot a visibility graph is searched for the shortest path and obstacle avoidance is done in a reflexive method using ultrasonic sensors.