By ooooo @ January 31, 2012

• Actuators / output devices: Servos
• CPU: laptop Asus core i5 2.2 GHz + PIC18F4550 micro-controller
• Operating system: Windows 7
• Power source: 5V + 12V
• Programming language: C++
• Sensors / input devices: Kinect
• Target environment: indoor

Given a priori knowledge of the environment and the goal position, mobile robot navigation refers to the robot’s ability to safely move towards the goal using its knowledge and sensorial information of the surrounding environment. In fact, in mobile robot operating in unstructured environment, the knowledge of the environment is usually absent or partial. Therefore, obstacle detection and avoidance are always mentioned for mobile robot missions.

Kinect is not only normal camera sensor but also a special device can provide depth map.Depth map is acquired through OpenNI library then processed by Point Cloud library to extract accurate information about the environment.

Here is link of full project: (code + references in English, others in Vietnamese but still good to understand from the source code)

http://www.mediafire.com/?36id9537h6i7h5y

and some samples using OpenNI & Point Cloud library

http://www.mediafire.com/?9llz49ht59e8t

http://www.mediafire.com/?48511h5h3egib

Some fun stuffs using kinect are available on my channel. Check out for more :d