L-PCM: Localization and Point Cloud Registration-Based Method for Pose Calibration of Mobile Robots

Abstract

The autonomous navigation of mobile robots contains three parts: map building, global localization, and path planning. Precise pose data directly affect the accuracy of global localization. However, the cumulative error problems of sensors and various estimation strategies cause the pose to have a large gap in data accuracy. To address these problems, this paper proposes a pose calibration method based on localization and point cloud registration, which is called L-PCM. Firstly, the method obtains the odometer and IMU (inertial measurement unit) data through the sensors mounted on the mobile robot and uses the UKF (unscented Kalman filter) algorithm to filter and fuse the odometer data and IMU data to obtain the estimated pose of the mobile robot. Secondly, the AMCL (adaptive Monte Carlo localization) is improved by combining the UKF fusion model of the IMU and odometer to obtain the modified global initial pose of the mobile robot. Finally, PL-ICP (point to line-iterative closest point) point cloud registration is used to calibrate the modified global initial pose to obtain the global pose of the mobile robot. Through simulation experiments, it is verified that the UKF fusion algorithm can reduce the influence of cumulative errors and the improved AMCL algorithm can optimize the pose trajectory. The average value of the position error is about 0.0447 m, and the average value of the angle error is stabilized at about 0.0049 degrees. Meanwhile, it has been verified that the L-PCM is significantly better than the existing AMCL algorithm, with a position error of about 0.01726 m and an average angle error of about 0.00302 degrees, effectively improving the accuracy of the pose.