Research Project

NAVROB: Integration of robust perception, learning, and navigation systems in mobile robotics

Type

National Project

Start Date

13/12/2004

End Date

12/12/2007

Project Code

DPI 2004-05414

Project illustration

Staff

Project Description

The primary goal of this project is to make an integrated system that includes perception, learning, and navigation systems for mobile robots in urban or compatible industrial surroundings. In these environments the surface is irregular, illumination conditions are varying, and the disposition of the objects and the obstacles is dynamic; reasons why it constitutes a challenge to obtain robust algorithms under these circumstances. By providing different systems for robust perception, the mobile platform should be able to autonomously generate a navigation map of the environment that will in turn serve to enrich a geographic information system (GIS). The objects learned by the system will, at the request of the user and through a graphical interface, be added to the database automatically. In the same way the user will be able to teach to the robot specific tasks to be accomplished in such enriched environment, by means of verbal or written commands, or even guided by vision. Once the sequences are learned, the robot should be able to execute one of these tasks autonomously, being able to react in dynamic conditions, and contiunuously update a map data base. The project starts from the results achieved in two previous projects funded by CICYT in 1998 and 2001, and granted to the principal investigator. In our previous projects we developed supervised learning techniques using active vision on our mobile robots MARCO and ANNA.
In this project we will develop robust low and high level perception techniques improving or contributing to new methods of color constancy with the aid of color histogram transformation and adaptation, to novel algorithms for segmentation of texture and color images, to the acquisition of depth maps, and to the fusion of all these techniques in order to obtain robust descriptions of the elements of the scene. Also, new techniques of learning and recognition of objects by synthesis of probabilistic graphs will be analyzed and implemented, and by indexing with matroids, and by contributing with new measures of coincidence between graphs. Furthermore, we will provide new methods for the detection and tracking of objects and people by fusing color, texture, geometry, active contours and depth information in real time using structural and probabilistic techniques. These methods will be primarily used for the identification and tracking of people or objects during the navigation of the mobile robot. With regards to self localization, we will work in new techniques based on sensor information from a laser rangefinder, stereo vision, color, audio, DGPS and a digital gyro, combined with autonomously generated maps or pertaining to an existing GIS. For the automatic construction of maps, we will continue work in our theoretical contributions and implementations of stochastic estimation techniques for SLAM (Kalman and particle filters), fusing information of one or more of the mentioned systems of perception. The information in such autonomously generated maps will continuously be matched and fused to that of a GIS. Finally, new techniques for the assisted learning of tasks will be developed, based on stochastic automatas and refinement methods.
The applications of this type of mobile robots include monitoring and surveillance task; the inspection and maintenance of industrial facilities; cleaning and monitoring of public areas; autonomous navigation of wheeled chairs in unstructured and dynamic settings; autonomous museum tour guides; or new generation of mobile platforms tailored to help in domestic tasks; among others.

Project Publications

Journal Publications

  • J. M. Mirats Tur, C. Zinggerling and A. Corominas Murtra. Geographical information systems for map based navigation in urban environments. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 57(9): 922-930, 2009.

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  • F. Moreno-Noguer, A. Sanfeliu and D. Samaras. Dependent multiple cue integration for robust tracking. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 30(4): 670-685, 2008.

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  • M. Mozerov, A. Amato, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. Trajectory occlusion handling with multiple view distance minimization clustering. Optical Engineering, 47: 2021-2029, 2008.

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  • F. Moreno-Noguer, A. Sanfeliu and D. Samaras. Integration of deformable contours and a multiple hypotheses Fisher color model for robust tracking in varying illuminant environments. Image and Vision Computing, 25(3): 285-296, 2007.

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  • F. Serratosa i Casanelles and A. Sanfeliu. Signatures versus histograms: Definitions, distances and algorithms. Pattern Recognition, 39(5): 921-934, 2006.

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  • E. Pastor, A. Àgueda, J. Andrade-Cetto, M.Á. Muñoz, Y. Pérez and E. Planas. Computing the rate of spread of linear flame fronts by thermal image processing. Fire Safety Journal, 41(8): 569-579, 2006.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. The effects of partial observability when building fully correlated maps. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 21(4): 771-777, 2005.

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Conference Publications

  • J. M. Mirats Tur, C. Zinggerling and A. Corominas Murtra. GIS map based mobile robot navigation in urban environments, 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, 2009, Munich, pp. 1-6.

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  • A. Sanfeliu, A. Punsola, Y. Yoshimura, M.R. Llácer and M.D. Gramunt. Analysis of the legal challenges required for the deployment of network robot systems in European urban areas, 2009 ICRA Workshop on Network Robot Systems, 2009, Kobe, Japan, pp. 1-8, IEEE.

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  • V. Ila, J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. Efficient vision-based loop closing techniques for delayed state robot mapping, 2008 Frontier Science Conference Series for Young Researchers: Experimental Cognitive Robotics, 2008, Kanagawa, Japó, pp. 1-6, ESF-JSPS.

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  • A. Amato, M. Al Haj, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Trajectory fusion for multiple camera tracking, 5th International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems, 2007, Wroclaw, Polònia, in Computer Recognition Systems 2, Vol 45 of Advances in Soft Computing, pp. 19-26, 2007, Springer.

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  • F.A. García, F.J. Orozco, J. Gonzàlez and J.L. Arcos. Assessing confidence in cased based reuse step, 10th Catalan Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2007, Sant Julià de Lòria, Andorra, in Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, Vol 163 of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 161-168, 2007, IOS Press.

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  • T. Vidal-Calleja, M. Bryson, S. Sukkarieh, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. On the observability of bearing only SLAM, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007, Rome, Italy, pp. 4114-4119, IEEE.

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  • P. Baiget, J. Soto, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. Automatic generation of computer animated sequences based on human behaviour modelling, 10th International Conference in Computer Graphics and Artificial Intelligence, 2007, Atenes, Grècia, pp. 1-11, TEIATH.

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  • V. Ila, J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. Outdoor delayed-state visually augmented odometry, 6th IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, 2007, Toulouse, France, Vol 40-15 of IFAC Proceedings Volumes, pp. 548-553, Elsevier.

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  • F.J. Orozco, F.A. García, J.L. Arcos and J. Gonzàlez. Spatio-temporal reasoning for reliable facial expression interpretation, 5th International Conference on Computer Vision Systems, 2007, Bielefeld, Alemanya, pp. 1-10, Bielefeld University.

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  • T. Vidal-Calleja, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Guiding and localising in real-time a mobile robot with a monocular camera in non-flat terrains, 6th IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, 2007, Toulouse, France, Vol 40-15 of IFAC Proceedings Volumes, pp. 560-565, Elsevier.

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  • C. Fernández, P. Baiget, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. High-level integration for cognitive vision surveillance, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • V. Ila, J. Andrade-Cetto, R. Valencia and A. Sanfeliu. Vision-based loop closing for delayed state robot mapping, 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007, San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 3892-3897, IEEE.

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  • P. Baiget, C. Fernández, A. Amato, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. Constructing a path database for scene categorization, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • M. Al Haj, F.J. Orozco, A. Amato, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. Finding faces in color images through primitive shape features, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • J. Scandaliaris, M. Villamizar, J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. Robust color contour object detection invariant to shadows, 12th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, 2007, Valparaiso, Xile, in Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol 4756 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 301-310, 2008, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • B. Chakraborty, I. Rius, M. Pedersoli, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Component-based human detection, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • M. Pedersoli, J. Gonzàlez, B. Chakraborty and J.J. Villanueva. Boosting histograms of oriented gradients for human detection, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • I. Huerta, D. Rowe, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Improving background subtraction based on a casuistry of colour-motion segmentation problems, 3rd Iberian Conference on Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, 2007, Girona, in Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, Vol 4477 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 475-482, 2007, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • D. Rowe, I. Huerta, M. Pedersoli, S. Guinea, J. Gonzàlez and J.J. Villanueva. A hierarchical architecture to multiple target tracking, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, s. n..

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  • I. Huerta, D. Rowe, M. Viñas, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Background subtraction fusing colour, intensity and edge cues, 2nd Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2007, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 105-110, s. n..

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  • F. Serratosa, G. Sanromà and A. Sanfeliu. A new algorithm to compute the distance between multi-dimensional histograms, 12th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, 2007, Valparaiso, Xile, in Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol 4756 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 115-123, 2008, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • M. Pedersoli, J. Gonzàlez, B. Chakraborty and J.J. Villanueva. Enhancing real-time human detection based on histograms of oriented gradients, 5th International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems, 2007, Wroclaw, Polònia, in Computer Recognition Systems 2, Vol 45 of Advances in Soft Computing, pp. 739-746, 2007, Springer.

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  • M. Mozerov, A. Amato, M. Al Haj and J. Gonzàlez. A simple method of multiple camera calibration for the joint top view projection, 5th International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems, 2007, Wroclaw, Polònia, in Computer Recognition Systems 2, Vol 45 of Advances in Soft Computing, pp. 164-170, 2007, Springer.

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  • M. Villamizar, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Cómputo de características invariantes a la rotación para el reconocimiento de distintas clases de objetos, XXVII Jornadas de Automática, 2006, Almeria, Spain, pp. 96-102, CEA.

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  • A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Ubiquitous networking robotics in urban settings, 2006 IROS Workshop on Network Robot Systems, 2006, Beijing, Xina, pp. 1-12, IEEE.

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  • F. Moreno-Noguer, A. Sanfeliu and D. Samaras. Integration of dependent Bayesian filters for robust tracking, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. 4081-4087, IEEE.

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  • F. Moreno-Noguer, A. Sanfeliu and D. Samaras. A target dependent colorspace for robust tracking, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2006, Hong Kong, Xina, pp. 43-46, 2006, IEEE, Hong Kong, Xina.

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  • T. Vidal-Calleja, A.J. Davison, J. Andrade-Cetto and D.W. Murray. Active control for single camera SLAM, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006, Orlando, FL, USA, pp. 1930-1936, IEEE.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto and F. Thomas. Wire-based tracking using mutual information, 10th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, 2006, Lyubljana, Slovenia, in Advances in Robot Kinematics: Mechanisms and Motion, pp. 3-14, 2006, Springer.

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  • F. Serratosa i Casanelles and A. Sanfeliu. Vision-based robot positioning by an exact distance between histograms, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2006, Hong Kong, Xina, pp. 849-852, 2006, IEEE, Hong Kong, Xina.

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  • M. Villamizar, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Computation of rotation local invariant features using the integral image for real time object detection, 18th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 2006, Hong Kong, Xina, pp. 81-85, 2006, IEEE, Hong Kong, Xina.

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  • D. Rowe, I. Reid, J. Gonzàlez and J.J. Villanueva. Unconstrained multiple-people tracking, 28th Annual Symposium of the German Association for Pattern Recognition, 2006, Berlin, Germany, in Pattern Recognition, Vol 4174 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 505-514, 2006, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • T. Vidal-Calleja, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Autonomous single camera exploration, 2a Jornada de Recerca en Automàtica, Visió i Robòtica, 2006, Barcelona, Espanya, pp. 121-127, UPC.

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  • M. Mozerov, I. Rius, F. Xavier Roca and J. Gonzàlez. 3D human motion sequences synchronization using dense matching algorithm, 28th Annual Symposium of the German Association for Pattern Recognition, 2006, Berlin, Germany, in Pattern Recognition, Vol 4174 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 485-494, 2006, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • P. Baiget, J. Gonzàlez, F.J. Orozco and F. Xavier Roca. Interpretation of human motion in image sequences using situation graph trees, 1st CVC Workshop on Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2006, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, UAB, Bellaterra, Espanya.

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  • J. Salas, P. Martínez and J. Gonzàlez. Background updating with the use of intrinsic curves, 3rd International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition, 2006, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, in Image Analysis and Recognition, Vol 4141 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 731-742, 2006, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • C. Fernández, P. Baiget, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Spanish text generation for image sequence evaluation using FMTHL and DRS, 1st CVC Workshop on Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2006, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, UAB, Bellaterra, Espanya.

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  • J. Gonzàlez, D. Rowe, J. Andrade-Cetto and J.J. Villanueva. Efficient management of multiple agent tracking through observation handling, 6th IASTED International Conference on Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing, 2006, Palma de Mallorca, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, ACTA Press, Palma de Mallorca, Espanya.

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  • I. Huerta, D. Rowe, J. Gonzàlez and J.J. Villanueva. Efficient incorporation of motionless foreground objects for adaptive background segmentation, 4th Conference on Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, 2006, Andratx, Espanya, in Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, Vol 4069 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 424-433, 2006, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • I. Huerta, D. Rowe, J. Gonzàlez and J.J. Villanueva. Improving foreground detection for adaptive background segmentation, 1st CVC Workshop on Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2006, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, UAB, Bellaterra, Espanya.

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  • M. Villamizar, A. Sanfeliu and J. Andrade-Cetto. Orientation invariant features for multiclass object recognition, 11th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, 2006, Cancún, Mèxic, in Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol 4225 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 655-664, 2006, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • I. Rius, C. Fernández, M. Mozerov and J. Gonzàlez. Constraining human motion for efficient tracking with a particle filter, 1st CVC Workshop on Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2006, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, UAB, Bellaterra, Espanya.

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  • D. Rowe, I. Huerta, J. Gonzàlez and J.J. Villanueva. Detection and tracking of multiple agents in unconstrained environments, 1st CVC Workshop on Computer Vision: Advances in Research & Development, 2006, Bellaterra, Espanya, pp. 1-6, 2006, UAB, Bellaterra, Espanya.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto, T. Vidal-Calleja and A. Sanfeliu. Unscented transformation of vehicle states in SLAM, 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2005, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 323-328, IEEE.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto, T. Vidal-Calleja and A. Sanfeliu. Multirobot C-SLAM: Simultaneous localization, control, and mapping, 2005 ICRA Workshop on Network Robot Systems, 2005, Barcelona, Espanya, pp. 1-12, IEEE.

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  • F. Moreno-Noguer and A. Sanfeliu. A framework to integrate particle filters for robust tracking in non-stationary environments, 2nd Iberian Conference on Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, 2005, Estoril, in Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, Vol 3523 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 93-101, 2005, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • J. Vergés-Llahí and A. Sanfeliu. A new color constancy algorithm based on the histogram of feasible mappings, 2nd International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition, 2005, Toronto, Canadà, in Image Analysis and Recognition, Vol 3656 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 720-728, 2005, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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  • J. Scandaliaris, R. Alquézar Mancho, J. Andrade-Cetto, J. Aranda, J. Climent, A. Grau, J. M. Mirats Tur, F. Moreno-Noguer, F. Serratosa, J. Vergés, T. Vidal-Calleja and A. Sanfeliu. Research at the learning and vision mobile robotics group 2004-2005, 1st Spanish Congress on Informatics, 2005, Granada, Espanya, pp. 1-7, CEDI.

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  • J. Vergés and A. Sanfeliu. A color constancy algorithm for the robust description of images collected from a mobile robot, 9th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, 2004, Puebla, Mèxic, in Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis and Applications, Vol 3287 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 232-240, 2004, Springer, Berlin, Alemanya.

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Other Publications

  • J. Andrade-Cetto and A. Sanfeliu. Environment learning for indoor mobile robots. A stochastic state estimation approach to simultaneous localization and map building. Volume 23 of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics. Springer, 2006.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto. Environment learning for indoor mobile robots. UPC, 2003.

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  • J. Gonzàlez, F. Xavier Roca and J.J. Villanueva. Research steps towards human sequence evaluation. In Advances in Computational Vision and Medical Image Processing, 105-115. Springer, 2009.

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  • J. Andrade-Cetto, T. Vidal-Calleja and A. Sanfeliu. Stochastic state estimation for simultaneous localization and map building in mobile robotics. In Cutting Edge Robotics, 223-242. Advanced Robotic Systems Press, 2005.

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  • A. Corominas Murtra and J. M. Mirats Tur. Map format for mobile robot map-based autonomous navigation. Technical Report IRI-TR-07-01, Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC, 2007.

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