Evaluating Different Landmark Positioning Systems Within the RIDE Architecture

Mobile robots operating in the real world need a very reliable localization system to navigate autonomously for long periods of time. Numerous methods for indoor mobile robot localization have been developed. However, an affordable system covering all environments and situations is not yet available. Therefore, it is very important for mobile robot application developers to be aware of the operation and limitations of the different localization systems in order to obtain the best performance for each case. This paper evaluates two indoor localization systems that are integrated in the RIDE architecture: a commercial (Hagisonic StarGazer) and a low cost localization system based on the popular Wii remote control (WiiMote) with different tag distributions were evaluated. Characteristics that were tested include precision, accuracy, reliability, cost and immunity to interference.