language: en

DOI: 10.1007/s004539910018

[Algorithmica (2000) 26: 364?388 Algorithmica � 2000 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.]

Visibility-Based Planning of Sensor Control Strategies 1

Amy J. Briggs 2 and Bruce R. Donald 3

Abstract We consider the problem of planning sensor control strategies that enable a sensor to be automatically configured for robot tasks. In this paper we present robust and efficient algorithms for computing the regions from which a sensor has unobstructed or partially obstructed views of a target in a goal. We apply these algorithms to the Error Detection and Recovery problem of recognizing whether a goal or failure region has been achieved. Based on these methods and strategies for visually-cued camera control, we have built a robot surveillance system in which one mobile robot navigates to a viewing position from which it has an unobstructed view of a goal region, and then uses visual recognition to detect when a specific target has entered the region.

Keywords: Visibility-based planning, error detection and recovery, sensor configuration, camera control, surveillance

1. Introduction.