Navigation of Mobile Robot Through Mapping Using Orbbec Astra Camera and ROS in an Indoor Environment

The obstacle avoidance and navigation are important tasks for a mobile robot in applications such as industry, military, exploration and automated vehicles. This paper presents an implementation of mapping and navigation of autonomous mobile robot using Robot Operating System (ROS) and Orbbec Astra camera. In recent days, Lidar is used for the mapping and navigation problem by sensing the objects which are above floor level by using only a single horizontal scanning line and this may result in inaccurate generation of map leads to collision during autonomous navigation of mobile robots. In order to overcome limitation of Lidar, Orbbec Astra (Kinect) camera is used for mapping of indoor environment which can detect objects which are above and below the floor level and navigation of mobile robot from start to target location without colliding with obstacles. Experimental results show the map of the indoor environment generated using Orbbec Astra camera is matched with real indoor environment, and generated map is tested experimentally to navigate the mobile robot from start to target location without collision with obstacles.