Hierarchical Sensor Fusion for Building an Occupancy Grid Map using Active Sensor Modules

An algorithm for three level hierarchical sensor fusions has been proposed and applied to environment map building with enhanced accuracy and efficiency. The algorithm was realized through the two new types of sensor module, which are composed a halogen lamp based active vision sensor and a semicircular ultrasonic (US) and infrared (IR) sensor system. In the first level fusion, the US and IR sensor information is utilized in terms of geometric characteristics of the sensor location. In the second level fusion, the output from the US and IR sensors are combined with the sheet of halogen light through a proposed rule base. In the third level fusion, local maps from the first and second level fusion are updated in probabilistic way for a very accurate environment local map. A practical implementation has been carried out to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed hierarchical sensor fusion algorithm in environment map building.