Identifying and Opening Doors

Abstract

An important challenge for autonomous personal robots is to be able to enter a human living environment and function in it, that is, find ways of navigating and interacting with the world in an effective manner. This means the robot should be capable of going anywhere where it can physically fit, where it would be able to find energy sources and recharge its batteries when their capacity is running low, and in general it must be able to do useful things such as cleaning tables. These behaviors need the support of complex perception routines which can recognize power plugs, certain structures and objects in the world, etc. Some of these environment structures, such as fixtures (handles and knobs) on doors and pieces of furniture, are of key importance for the robot’s performance. Any robot that will operate indoors must be able to correctly locate these fixtures and open doors to be able to better carry out different tasks. Since the robot may have to function in a wide variety of environments under varying lighting conditions, a robust door detection ability is essential for the robot.