Described here is a method for estimating rolling and swaying motions of a mobile robot using optical flow. We have proposed
an image sensor with a hyperboloidal mirror for the vision-based navigation of a mobile robot. Its name is HyperOmni Vision.
The radial component of optical flow in HyperOmni Vision has a periodic characteristic. The circumferential component of optical
flow has a symmetric characteristic. The proposed method makes use of these characteristic to estimate robustly the rolling
and swaying motion of the mobile robot.
Key words: HyperOmni Vision - Mobile robot - Optical flow - Omnidirectional vision - Motion estimation
Correspondence to: Y. Yagi e-mail: y-yagi@sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp