Low-Level Active Visual Navigation: Increasing Robustness of Vision-Based Localization Using Potential Fields

This letter proposes a low-level visual navigation algorithm to improve visual localization of a mobile robot. The algorithm, based on artificial potential fields, associates each feature in the current image frame with an attractive or neutral potential energy, with the objective of generating a control action that drives the vehicle towards the goal, while still favoring feature rich areas within a local scope, thus improving the localization performance. One key property of the proposed method is that it does not rely on mapping, and therefore it is a lightweight solution that can be deployed on miniaturized aerial robots, in which memory and computational power are major constraints. Simulations and real experimental results using a mini quadrotor equipped with a downward looking camera demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively drive the vehicle to a designated goal through a path that prevents localization failure.