02 Sensors and Variables Estimation

Systèmes robotisés intelligents
Smart Robotic Systems
Sensors and Variables Estimation
Gilles TAGNE
gilles.tagne@junia.com
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Sensors and variables estimation
Summary:
1. Sensors for mobile robots

2. Variables estimation
3. Multi-sensor fusion
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Sensors and variables estimation
Purpose:
Usual problem in robotics:

• Where am I? // In which configuration am I?
• Where should I go? // What configuration
should I reach?
• How to get there?
➔ We need sensors to get data and we need

some algorithms to use them!
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Sensors for mobile robots
We have two class of sensors:
• Proprioceptive sensors: provide information on the

internal state of the robot
➔ Example: get the relative position of the robot.
• Exteroceptive sensors: provide information on the state

of the environment
➔ Example: get the absolute position of the robot.
Sensors can be:

• Passive / Active
• Analog / Digital
• Logic / Smart
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Classification example:
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Sensors for position measurement:
▪ Odometry sensors:
Use encoders to measure the rotation of the wheels and/or
steering angles.
Pros: proprioceptive sensor → always able to give an
estimation of the position.
Cons: accumulation of error.
▪ Orientation sensors:
Use gyroscopes or accelerometers to measure speed of rotation
or accelerations.
Pros: proprioceptive sensor.
Cons: drift over time (error integration)
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Odometry sensors
Measurement of wheel speed rotation
➔ Estimation of the robot's displacement
Most common daily use: dead-reckoning (estimation of the
position of your car in a tunnel into which you can’t receive GPS)
Two types of odometry sensors:

• Relative optical encoder
• Absolute optical encoder
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Optical encoders
How does it work?: a ray of light aim at a

photosensor and is periodically interrupted by a
perforated disc that turn with the shaft of the motor.
➔ Measuring the position consists in

counting the number of impulses.
(example: step motor)
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Relative optical encoders
Those encoders usually measure the speed of rotation from which we can
easily retrieve the position.
Same principle than the previous example but with two engraved tracks
shifted by 1/4th of the period → allow to get the direction of rotation and to
improve the resolution therefore the precision. (2 tracks = resolution x4)
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A compromise has to be made between:

- low resolution → high noise especially at low speed
- high resolution → need high frequency counting electronics
Pros:
- Low cost (but price increase with the resolution)
- Few cables (usually 5)
- Small size
Cons:
- No absolute position → need a recalibration procedure!
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Absolute optical encoders
Same use of light through a wheel, but with an engraved binary code.
Each position of the axis is a number on Nbits ➔ absolute position!
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Be careful about which kind of encoder wheel you have!
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Be careful about which kind of encoder wheel you have!
« Natural » binary VS Gray code
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Each position is on Nbits ➔ Sensor resolution = 2N
Each new track on the wheel ➔ Resolution x2 but price ≈x4 !
Pros:
- Absolute position
Cons:
- More expensive (price increasing with resolution)
- Slightly bigger component
- More cables (one for each track + power)
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Resume: Optical encoders for odometry
Pros:
- Low cost
- Easy to integrate
Cons:
- We never know exactly the diameter of the wheel (tire
pressure, ground condition…)
- Wheel drift on accelerations/brakings
➔ Cumulative error on the position estimation!
➔ Need the support of complementary sensors to

correct the localization estimation of a mobile robot.
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Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

➔ Widely used to measure accelerations and orientation
(phones, GPS, VR headsets…)
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Typically, one sensor per type needed on each axis:
● 6DOF = 3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope
● 9DOF = 6DOF + 3-axis magnetometer
● 10DOF = 9DOF + barometric pressure sensor (altitude)
➔Additionnal feature: thermometer for self-calibration.
➔Need to be placed as close as possible to the gravity

center of the robot or its position relatively to this point
must be known precisely for the conception (and use) of
the robot model.
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Gyroscopes:
➔Gives angular velocity in degrees/s or rad/s.
➔Has constant bias which is affected by temperature.
➔Bias changes over time (bias stability).
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Accelerometer:
➔Gives acceleration in m/s2 or g.
➔At rest an accelerometer measures the gravity vector pointing up.
➔Accurate long term (no drift) but not short term (noise).
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Gyroscope:
➔Measures magnetic field strength on each axis in Gauss (unit
of magnetic flux) or µT (unit of magnetic field strength).
➔Points generally towards magnetic north.
➔Can be distorted by nearby metals or electronics.
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Telemetry:
Principle: To measure the time of flight to get the distance.
Transmitter and receiver are close so we measure the echo.
Can be done using:

- Sound waves (ultrasound)
- Electromagnetic waves (radio)
- Light (mostly infrared)
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Sonar / Ultrasonic sensors:
Proximity and distance measurement
Sound waves that reflect on the obstacles Advantages: Precision,
low cost
Drawbacks: Maximum
frequency of
measurements, cone
angle of opening
➔ Check min and max
range!
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Sonar / Ultrasonic sensors:
Directivity patterns for two different sonar sensors.

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Radar / Doppler / proximity sensor:
Distance and Speed measurement
Similar to ultrasonic telemeter but with electromagnetic waves (radio)
Advantages: Low cost, Highly

industrialized
Drawbacks: Waves carried by air

therefore unusable at high speed,
aerodynamic effects that deteriorate
the signal, absorption of the signal by
certain materials
Main applications: Parking

assistance
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Infrared telemeter
Proximity and distance optical measurement
Advantages: Measurement acquisition frequency,

precision, short range
Drawbacks: Low distances <5m (Typically <2m), what
about transparent materials?
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LIDAR
• Rotating laser with high acquisition
frequency
• 180/360° Precise distance
measurements
• Mainly used for mapping
Example (characteristics):
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LIDAR
Can provide 2D or 3D data in an array of
data or in a point cloud
➔ Depends on the need and the
computational power available (need
to apply a transform to each point to
get their absolute position)
➔ Laser can be problematic with
some surfaces (mirrors, windows…)
➔ Depending on the need there is a
choice to be made between the
frequency of acquisition and the
precision (resolution)
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LIDAR
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Cameras (Vision)
2D Cameras important features:
- Resolution
- RBG // BW or Grayscale // IR (need
infrared light emitters for night vision or a very
sensitive sensor for thermal vision)
- Frame rate (FPS)
- Apperture & Sensitivity
- Fixed / Adjustable focal length
- Rolling or global shutter
- Connectivity (USB? CSI? Other?)
- CMOS / CCD
- Horizontal & Vertical FOV
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Cameras (Vision)
2D Cameras important features:
• “Eye to hand” → “Caméra deportée”

• “Eye in hand” → “Caméra embarquée”
≠
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Cameras (Vision)
2D Cameras variation: Omnidirectional camera
- Use of optical lenses or shaped mirrors to get a 360° picture.
➔ Nice idea but need to use time-consuming computer vision
algorithm to compensate the optical deformation before any
processing of the image…
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Cameras (Vision)
2D Cameras variation: Stereovision
➔ Two 2D cameras used to get precisous depth information
= cheap 3D camera!
➔ Based on how our eyes work with our brain
→ The distance between the cameras must be
known precisely!
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Cameras (Vision)
2D Cameras variation: Stereovision
Easy and cheap but results

are not very precise…
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Cameras (Vision)
3D Cameras:
Time of Flight (TOF) cameras = TOF sensor matrix
= Infrared telemeter marix
➔ Low resolution, often short range but good precision
➔ The higher the resolution or range, the higher the price!
➔ More and more integration into new smartphones
so it might become cheaper and better in a near future…
38 38
Cameras (Vision)
3D Cameras:
Structured IR light = projection of an infrared pattern
➔ The distortion of the pattern show the depth variations
➔ Good precision and resolution
➔ Quite unexpensive
➔ The data fusion with a RGB camera gives a RGB-D camera
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Cameras (Vision)
3D Cameras:
Structured IR light = Example of the D415 and D435
Intel RealSense cameras
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Cameras (Vision)
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Cameras (Vision systems)
Advantages:
• Usually cheap and easy to use
• Allows customed 2D/3D data depending on the need
• Combined with computer vision algorithms it can give a lot of
information about the environment around the robot and allow it to
achieve many tasks (tracking a target, recognize object or faces,
detect patterns…)
Drawbacks:
• The form factor of some camera may not be easy to integrate in
constrained environment
• Useless without computer vision algorithms that need some
computation power to run in real time (if possible)
• Those algorithms can provide false positive detections
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GNSS* sensors:
GPS (Global Positioning System)
- Measuring the absolute position of a point in a
fixed landmark (the center of the earth)
- 3 satellites signals needed (4 is more robust)
- Only for outdoor navigation
→ Useful for position recalibration
- Differential GPS (DGPS) → 1-3 cm precision
Advantages: No drift
Drawbacks: Low frequency <5Hz (typically 1Hz),
unavailability of satellite signals (indoor, under water…)
*Global Navigation Satellite System-
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Other sensors:
A lot of sensors exist for all your needs !
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Robot components: sensors
What levels of processing for those sensors ?
➔ How much processing power? Which board process the
data?
Low
Electronics: the sensor which detects bumping into obstacles

=> binary data or analog value through ADC.
Signal Processing: microphone sensor for recognizing a voice

=> filtering, clipping…
Computation: a camera to find your best friend at the party

High => algorithm, machine learning…
Low Medium High

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Classification example:
• Analog sensors
• Digital sensors
• Logic sensors
Exercise: Build an array

sensors of the following
robots :
• Pepper
• Turtlebot 3 Burger
• Turtlebot 2i
• ISEN Mobile robot
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Variables estimation
What need to be estimated?
• Noise from the data of a sensor (odometry, IMU) or
from any other component (resistance, motor…).
Why?
• Data is too noisy → Impossibility to measure precisely
• Very expensive sensor so we want the best precision
and we need to remove precisely the noise
How to estimate?
• By developing a mathematical estimator
• By filtering the data (Kalman filter)
• Combining or merging many information
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Mathematical estimator:
We make several measure with the sensor and notice some

fluctuations on the data → there is noise!
Most of the time we use a linear model:

𝑦 =𝑎𝜃+ 𝜔
with: 𝑦 = measured data
𝑎 = known parameter (gain...)
𝜃 = real sensor value
𝜔 = random noise
We will use statistics to characterize the random noise

➔ Hypothesis: 𝜔 is a non zero mean Gaussian white noise
This is a simple example but building an estimator of a system is

a really complex task that needs a lot of data and math skills!
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Kalman Filter:
Widely used for filtering random noise.

Use the mathematical model of the system and more statistics!
The equations of the Kalman Filter algorithm may seem complex but the most
important is to know how it works and to know how to use it!
Based on 3 simple steps:

1. Prediction: Based on the mathematical model we
estimate the value that has yet to be measured.
2. Measure: We get the raw data read by the sensor.
3. Correction: We calculate the difference between
the estimation and the measurement, and we
update the mathematical model.
The recursive use of this algorithm over time ensure the error to
be null over time as the error is removed at each step.
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Kalman Filter:
Other existing similar algorithms

depending on your need and your
available computation power:
- Extended Kalman Filter
- Unscented KF
- Particle Filter
…
➔ More to be seen in the chapter

on Localization!
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Multi-sensor data fusion
Purposes of data fusion:

• More robust estimation of the robot state
• Analysis of the robot near environment
• Planning for future actions
Data fusion examples:

• Odometry + GPS = Robust vehicle localization
• Odometry + IMU = Robust simple position for small mobile robots
• Camera + Odometry + IMU + US + Lidar = Development of the
robot dynamic local map (SLAM)
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Data fusion Methods:
• Probability theory
• Theory of possibility
• Theory of fuzzy sets (fuzzy logic)
• Theory of belief functions
• Decision trees
• Rule bases
• Nearest neighbors
• Neural networks
• Bayesian networks
• Markov chains
• EFK
• UKF
• Particle Filtering
• … Kalman Filter!
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Application of the Kalman Filter to data fusion:
The odometry data (red)
accumulate error over
time.
The fusion of the

odometry and IMU data
provide a much better
result but still has a huge
error in the end.
➔ Data fusion is not

magical!
➔ It helps to get more
reliable data from
sensors but absolute
positionning is always
required for precision!
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The same way we considered our sensors data to be noisy,
we can merge two data from different sources by
considering that each one has some statistic error.
➔ A lot of applications: position and LIDAR data fusion
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The same way we considered our sensors data to be noisy,
we can merge two data from different sources by
considering that each one has some statistic error.
➔ A lot of applications: 2D image and Depth data fusion
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➔ A lot of applications: 3D image + position = 3D map
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Next steps…
• Locomotion
• Localization
• Trajectory planning
• Robot Control
• Power supply
• Practical work
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02 Sensors and Variables Estimation

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02 Sensors and Variables Estimation

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Systèmes robotisés intelligents

Smart Robotic Systems

Sensors and Variables Estimation

1. Sensors for mobile robots

Usual problem in robotics:

➔ We need sensors to get data and we need

• Proprioceptive sensors: provide information on the

• Exteroceptive sensors: provide information on the state

Sensors can be:

Two types of odometry sensors:

• Absolute optical encoder

How does it work?: a ray of light aim at a

➔ Measuring the position consists in

A compromise has to be made between:

Each position of the axis is a number on Nbits ➔ absolute position!

« Natural » binary VS Gray code

Each new track on the wheel ➔ Resolution x2 but price ≈x4 !

➔ Cumulative error on the position estimation!

➔ Need the support of complementary sensors to

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

➔Additionnal feature: thermometer for self-calibration.

➔Need to be placed as close as possible to the gravity

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU / Compass)

Can be done using:

Directivity patterns for two different sonar sensors.

Advantages: Low cost, Highly

Drawbacks: Waves carried by air

Main applications: Parking

Advantages: Measurement acquisition frequency,

• “Eye to hand” → “Caméra deportée”

Easy and cheap but results

Electronics: the sensor which detects bumping into obstacles

Signal Processing: microphone sensor for recognizing a voice

Computation: a camera to find your best friend at the party

Low Medium High

Exercise: Build an array

We make several measure with the sensor and notice some

Most of the time we use a linear model:

We will use statistics to characterize the random noise

This is a simple example but building an estimator of a system is

Widely used for filtering random noise.

Based on 3 simple steps:

Other existing similar algorithms

➔ More to be seen in the chapter

Purposes of data fusion:

Data fusion examples:

The fusion of the

➔ Data fusion is not

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