Use of infrared landmark zones for mobile robot localization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel localization scheme using infrared identification (IRID) fused with encoder information. Design/methodology/approach – IRID emitters are mounted on the ceiling in order to divide the floor workspace into sectors. Encoding the IRID signal then allows the mobile robot to identify which sector it is in. The sector information is fused with the dead‐reckoning results for estimation of the robot configuration based on the fact that IRID has highly deterministic characteristics. Findings – Fusing the dead‐reckoning result and the IRID information bounds and in some cases reduces the size of the uncertainty. This enables one to more accurately estimate the robot's configuration. Originality/value – A new artificial landmark, IRID is developed for mobile robot localization. This paper also demonstrates a framework that fuses the IRID information (deterministic) and dead‐reckoning result (stochastic).