A Visual Homing Algorithm for Mobile Robots That Leverages Stereovision
Abstract
The term 'robot' was ushered into existence by Karel Capek in his play Rossum's Universal Robots. Capek was a Czech science fiction w riter in the early 19th century. Contrary to popular belief, Capek did not invent the word 'robot'. His elder brother Josef Capek derived the word from the Czech noun 'robota' meaning 'labour', and 'robotnik' meaning 'workman' (Dudek & Jenkin 2010).Robots have come a long way from being just machines capable of performing predefined tasks. Today's robots are more intelligent, versatile, and better equipped than they have ever been. But what is a robot? The definition that best fits the work presented in this thesis is from Ronald Arkin's Behaviour Based Robotics: "An intelligent Robot is a machine able to extract information from its environment and use knowledge about its world to move safely in a meaningful and purposive manner." A robot's ability to perceive its environment depends on the sensors with which it is outfitted. Modern robots are equipped with a variety of sensors such as sonar, radar, contact sensors, laser range finders, cameras, etc. Robots that are developed following the same general structure as humans are known as humanoid robots. Humanoid robots are often referred to as androids in science fiction. Albeit androids are beyond today's technology, insectlike robots are now commonplace and are commercially available (Arkin 1998).
Subject Area
Computer science
Recommended Citation
Nirmal, Paramesh J, "A Visual Homing Algorithm for Mobile Robots That Leverages Stereovision" (2013). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI13853146.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI13853146
