This monograph is devoted to the theory and development of autonomous
navigation of mobile robots using computer vision based sensing
mechanism. The conventional robot navigation systems, utilizing
traditional sensors like ultrasonic, IR, GPS, laser sensors etc., suffer
several drawbacks related to either the physical limitations of the
sensor or incur high cost. Vision sensing has emerged as a popular
alternative where cameras can be used to reduce the overall cost,
maintaining high degree of intelligence, flexibility and robustness.
This book includes a detailed description of several new approaches for
real life vision based autonomous navigation algorithms and SLAM. It
presents the concept of how subgoal based goal-driven navigation can be
carried out using vision sensing. The development concept of vision
based robots for path/line tracking using fuzzy logic is presented, as
well as how a low-cost robot can be indigenously developed in the
laboratory with microcontroller based sensor systems. The book describes
successful implementation of integration of low-cost, external
peripherals, with off-the-shelf procured robots. An important highlight
of the book is that it presents a detailed, step-by-step sample
demonstration of how vision-based navigation modules can be actually
implemented in real life, under 32-bit Windows environment. The book
also discusses the concept of implementing vision based SLAM employing a
two camera based system.