Particle filter for Correction of GPS location data of a mobile robot

This paper proposes a method which corrects location data of GPS for navigation of outdoor mobile robot. The method uses a Bayesian filter approach called the particle filter(PF). The method iterates two procedures: prediction and correction. The prediction procedure calculates robot location based on translational and rotational velocity data given by the robot command. It incorporates uncertainty into the predicted robot location by adding uncertainty to translational and rotational velocity command. Using the sensor characteristics of the GPS, the belief that a particle assumes true location of the robot is calculated. The resampling from the particles based on the belief constitutes the correction procedure. Since usual GPS data includes abrupt and random noise, the robot motion command based on the GPS data suffers from sudden and unexpected change, resulting in jerky robot motion. The PF reduces corruption on the GPS data and prevents unexpected location error. The proposed method is used for navigation of a mobile robot in the 2011 Robot Outdoor Navigation Competition, which was held at Gwangju on the 16-th August 2011. The method restricted the robot location error below 0.5m along the navigation of 300m length.