Development of an omni-directional mobile robot with two or more cameras and navigation based on cell map information

This paper describes the development of a robot that can perform nursing tasks in a hospital or a welfare facility. In a narrow environment such as a sickroom or a hallway in the hospital, the robot must be able to move freely in arbitrary directions to execute the tasks. To achieve precise tasks, the robot needs to have high controllability and the capability to make precise movements. The proposed robot has four independent wheels. It can be controlled in the reference directions by means of comparisons of the position of the edge between the floor and wall in a hallway, original cell map information, and other specific targets extracted from the wall, and thus moves safely using two or more of its eight cameras, without any permanent induction line established in the building. Wireless communications between the robot in the patient room and a host computer in a control center such as a nurse station enables the robot's autonomous movement everywhere in the hospital. In an actual experiment, the robot navigated a hallway by switching cameras and using both cell map information and recognition of a specific target.