Optimal robot self-localization and reliability evaluation

This work discusses optimal estimation of the current location of a robot by matching an image of the scene taken by the robot with the model of the environment and gives a method that attains that bound.

Abstract

We discuss optimal estimation of the current location of a robot by matching an image of the scene taken by the robot with the model of the environment. We first present a theoretical accuracy bound and then give a method that attains that bound, which can be viewed as describing the probability distribution of the current location. Using real images, we demonstrate that our method is superior to the naive least-squares method. We also confirm the theoretical predictions of our theory by applying the bootstrap procedure.