ASL

Autonomous Systems Lab

Spring 2021

Perception I │Sensors
Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 1
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Mobile Robot Control Scheme

knowledge, mission
data base commands

Localization “position“ Cognition

Map Building global map Path Planning

environment model
path
local map

Information Path

Motion Control
Extraction Execution
see-think-act
Perception

actuator
raw data
commands

Sensing Acting

Real World
Environment
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 2
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 3
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Perception is hard!

 “In AI, the easy problems are hard, and the hard problems are easy”
 S. Pinker. The Language Instinct. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1994

see-think-act
beating the world’s chess create a machine with some
master: EASY “common sense”: very HARD

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 4
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Perception | definition
Understanding
Places / Situations
A specific room, a meeting situation, …
•Functional / Contextual
Servicing / Reasoning Relationships of Objects
• imposed
Objects • learned
Extracting Information

• spatial / temporal/semantic
Doors, Humans, Coke bottle, car , …

Interaction •Models / Semantics

• imposed
• learned
Features
Corners, Lines, Colors, Phonemes, …

Navigation •Models
• imposed
Raw Data • learned
Vision, Laser, Sound, Smell, …
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 5
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Sensors | common sensors and their use in mobile robotics

 Tactile sensors or bumpers

Laser scanners
 Detection of physical contact, security switches GPS

 GPS Omnidirectional camera

 Global localization and navigation
Inertial measurement unit
 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
Laser scanner
 Orientation and acceleration of the robot
 Wheel encoders
 Local motion estimation (odometry) Security
Standard camera switch

 Laser scanners
 Obstacle avoidance, motion estimation, scene
interpretation (road detection, pedestrians)
 Cameras
Wheel encoders
 Texture information, motion estimation, scene
interpretation
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 6
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Wheel / Motor Encoders

 Use cases
 measure position or speed of the wheels or steering
 integrate wheel movements to get an estimate of the position
→ odometry
 optical encoders are proprioceptive sensors
 typical resolutions: 64 - 2048 increments per revolution.
 for high resolution: interpolation
 Working principle of optical encoders
 regular: counts the number of transitions but cannot tell the
direction of motion
 quadrature: uses four sensors in quadrature-phase shift. The
ordering of which wave produces a rising edge first tells the
direction of motion. Additionally, resolution is 4 times bigger
 a single slot in the outer track generates one reference pulse
per revolution
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 7
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Wheel / Motor Encoders

scanning
reticle fields
scale
slits

2. Main Characteristics
• The four fields on the scanning reticle are shifted
in phase relative to each other by one quarter of
the grating period, which equals 360°/(number of
lines)
• This configuration allows the detection of a
change in direction
• Easy to interface with a micro-controller
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 8
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Wheel / Motor Encoders

Notice what happens when the direction changes:

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 9
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Ultrasonic Range Sensor (time of flight, sound)

1. Operational Principle
emitter
An ultrasonic pulse is generated by a piezo-
electric emitter, reflected by an object in its path,
and sensed by a piezo-electric receiver. Based
receiver on the speed of sound in air and the elapsed time
from emission to reception, the distance between
the sensor and the object is easily calculated.
v  t
d
2
2. Main Characteristics
• Precision influenced by angle to object (as
illustrated on the next slide)
• Useful in ranges from several cm to several
meters
• Typically relatively inexpensive

3. Applications
• Distance measurement (also for transparent
surfaces)
• Collision detection
<http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/
shop/Ultrasonic_Rangers1999.htm>

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 10
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Ultrasonic Range Sensor | Limitations

 not directive – opening cone

 soft surfaces that absorb most of

the sound energy

 surfaces that are fare from being

perpendicular to the direction of the
sound
 specular reflections

 Low update frequency (speed of

sound)

a) 360° scan b) results from different geometric primitives

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 11
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Laser-based 3D mapping | scan matching

Mapping &
Localization
scan t1

scan matching

scan t2
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I - add ons │Sensors | 12
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Perception I │Spotlight on GPS

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I │Spotlight on GPS | 13
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Global Positioning System (GPS)

 Working Principle
 Location of any GPS receiver is determined through a time-of-flight measurement between
the satellites and user.
 The satellites send their orbital location (ephemeris) plus time; the receiver computes its
location through trilateration and time correction.

 Technical challenges:
 Time synchronization between the individual satellites and the GPS receiver
 Real time update of the exact location of the satellites
 Precise measurement of the time-of-flight
 Interferences with other signals

 Depending on the constellation, today an accuracy below

one meter in global positioning can be reached.
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I │Spotlight on GPS | 14
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Global Positioning System (GPS)

 Time synchronization:
 ultra-precision time synchronization is very important
 atomic clocks on each satellite
 monitoring them from different ground stations.
 Electromagnetic radiation travels roughly 0.3 m per nanosecond (speed of light)
 position accuracy proportional to precision of time measurement
 Real-time update of the exact location of the satellites:
 monitoring the satellites from several widely distributed ground stations
 master station analyses all the measurements and transmits the actual position to each of the satellites
 Exact measurement of the time of flight
 quartz clock on the GPS receivers are not very precise
 the range measurement with four satellite allows to identify the three values (x, y, z) for the position
and the clock correction ΔT
 Commercial GPS receivers have nominal position accuracy of around 3 meters
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I │Spotlight on GPS | 15
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Autonomous Systems Lab

Global Positioning System (GPS) | interference with local environment

Satellite coverage Multipath problem

Autonomous Mobile Robots

Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I │Spotlight on GPS | 16
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Autonomous Systems Lab

GPS error sources

 Standard GPS
 Ephemeris (satellite position) errors: 1 meter
 Tropospheric delays: 1 meter
 Unmodeled ionosphere delays: 10 meters
 Multipath: 0.5 - 100 meters
 Number of satellites under line of sight

 RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) - GPS

 Additional measurements of the phase of the
signal's carrier wave
 reference station or interpolated virtual station to
provide real-time corrections
→ providing up to centimeter-level accuracy
Autonomous Mobile Robots
Roland Siegwart, Margarita Chli, Nick Lawrance 2021 | Perception I │Spotlight on GPS | 17