It would be a very challenging task for mobile robot to track a person walking ahead on hilly terrains with a 2D lidar sensor instead of a 3D lidar or a rotating 2D lidar sensor. But it is clear that the 2D lidar based method is much more efficient in terms of computational costs and sensor cost only. For successful leader-following of the mobile robot with the 2D lidar sensor on such hilly roads, it is necessary to develop a classifier capable of recognizing a specific body part of the leader differently from other parts. In this study, the Mahalanobis distance kernel based on two features extracted from the leader’s torso profiles is used to construct the elliptical decision boundaries for the classification problem. In addition, based on that classifier, the roll and pitch angle of the 2D lidar sensor are controlled to continuously track the leader’s body part and to estimate the relative distance between the leader and the robot. As a result, even when the leader walks along paths with flat-to-hill transitions in day and night, the mobile robot successfully follows the leader with 80 % detection rate by stable pitching not exceed 1° of the 2D lidar sensor for keeping the torso inside its field of view. The proposed approach will be useful to improve the performances of multi-sensor based leader detection system using not only lidar sensor but also vision sensor with switching control scheme.

对于移动机器人而言，使用2D激光雷达传感器而不是3D激光雷达或旋转的2D激光雷达传感器来跟踪在丘陵地带上向前行走的人将是一项艰巨的任务。但是很明显，基于2D激光雷达的方法仅在计算成本和传感器成本方面效率更高。为了在这样的丘陵道路上成功实现带2D激光雷达传感器的移动机器人的跟随者跟随，有必要开发一种能够区别于其他部分识别跟随者的特定身体部位的分类器。在这项研究中，基于从领导者躯干轮廓中提取的两个特征的马氏距离核用于构造分类问题的椭圆决策边界。此外，基于该分类器，控制2D激光雷达传感器的侧倾角和俯仰角，以连续跟踪领导者的身体部位并估算领导者与机器人之间的相对距离。结果，即使领导者在白天和黑夜中从平坦到坡道的路径行走时，移动机器人也可以通过稳定地倾斜不超过2D激光雷达传感器1°的倾斜度，以80％的成功率跟随领导者。在其视野内的躯干。所提出的方法将不仅对使用激光雷达传感器而且还使用具有切换控制方案的视觉传感器来提高基于多传感器的前导检测系统的性能很有用。移动机器人通过不超过2D激光雷达传感器1°的稳定俯仰成功地以80％的检测率跟随领先者，从而将躯干保持在其视野内。所提出的方法将不仅对使用激光雷达传感器而且还使用具有切换控制方案的视觉传感器来提高基于多传感器的前导检测系统的性能很有用。移动机器人通过不超过2D激光雷达传感器1°的稳定俯仰成功地以80％的检测率跟随领先者，从而将躯干保持在其视野内。所提出的方法将不仅对使用激光雷达传感器而且还使用具有切换控制方案的视觉传感器来提高基于多传感器的前导检测系统的性能很有用。