Decentralized Sensor Fusion for Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Areas

• Main Authors: Aníbal Ollero, Plínio Moreno, Josep M. Mirats, Luis Merino, John Illingworth, Andrew Gilbert, Andreu Corominas, Jesús Capitán, Marco Barbosa, Richard Bowden, Juan Andrade-Cetto, Alberto Sanfeliu, João Sequeira, Matthijs T. J. Spaan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2010-03-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: network robot systems; distributed sensors; robot sensors; camera network
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/10/3/2274/

In this article we explain the architecture for the environment and sensors that has been built for the European project URUS (Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Sites), a project whose objective is to develop an adaptable network robot architecture for cooperation between network robots and human beings and/or the environment in urban areas. The project goal is to deploy a team of robots in an urban area to give a set of services to a user community. This paper addresses the sensor architecture devised for URUS and the type of robots and sensors used, including environment sensors and sensors onboard the robots. Furthermore, we also explain how sensor fusion takes place to achieve urban outdoor execution of robotic services. Finally some results of the project related to the sensor network are highlighted.