TelOpTrak: Heuristics-enhanced Indoor Location Tracking for Tele-operated Robots Johann Borenstein 1 , Russ Miller 2 and Adam Borrell 3 1 (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, MI, USA) 2 (Department of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, MI, USA) 3 (Boston Dynamics, Waltham, MA, USA) (E-mail: johannb@umich.edu) With most tele-operated robots the operator’s only feedback is the view from an onboard camera. Live video lets the operator observe the robot’s immediate surroundings but does not establish the orientation or whereabouts of the robot in its environment. An additional plot of the robot’s trajectory would be helpful for the operator and is sometimes provided, based on GPS. However, indoors where GPS is unavailable, tracking has to rely on dead-reckoning, which is too inaccurate to be useful. Our proposed TelOpTrak method corrects dead- reckoning errors even when only odometry and a low-cost (and thus, high-drift) MEMS-class gyro are available on the robot. TelOpTrak corrects gyro drift by exploiting the structured nature of most buildings, but without having to directly sense building features. This paper explains the TelOpTrak method and provides comprehensive experimental results. Earlier versions of this paper (Borenstein et al., 2010a), (Borenstein et al., 2010b) were presented at two conferences. The main difference between the earlier conference papers and the present manuscript is that the latter is more comprehensive, more up-to-date, and it presents an entirely new set of experimental results, including results of a live demonstration at the 2010 Robotics Rodeo event at Ft. Benning, USA. KEY WORDS 1. Tele-operated. 2. Location. 3. Heuristic. 1. INTRODUCTION. Most tele-operated robots offer the remote operator just one kind of visual feedback: the view from an onboard camera. These video pictures do not allow the operator to establish the orientation or whereabouts of the robot in its environment. Some Operator Control Units (OCUs) offer a second window, in which the trajectory of the robot is plotted. However, this window is typically shown only if Global Positioning System (GPS) is available. Indoors, where GPS is not available, it is necessary to employ other vehicle tracking methods to supply the tele-operator with a view of the robot’s trajectory. THE JOURNAL OF NAVIGATION (2012), 65, 265–279. © The Royal Institute of Navigation doi:10.1017/S0373463311000725