Fakultät für Informatik
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Institute
We present an approach for indoor mapping and localization with a mobile robot using sparse range data, without the need for solving the SLAM problem.
The paper consists of two main parts. First, a split and merge based method for dividing a given metric map into distinct regions is presented, thus creating a topological map in a metric framework.
Spatial information extracted from this map is then used for self-localization. The robot computes local confidence maps for two simple localization strategies based on distance and relative orientation of regions.
The local confidence maps are then fused using an approach adapted from computer vision to produce overall confidence maps. Experiments on data acquired by mobile robots equipped with sonar sensors are presented.
This paper shows how a mobile robot equipped with sonar sensors and an odometer is used to test ideas about cognitive mapping. The robot first explores an office environment and computes a "cognitive map" which is a network of ASRs [1]. The robot generates two networks, one for the outward journey and the other for the journey home.
It is shown that both networks are different. The two networks, however, are not merged to form a single network. Instead, the robot attempts to use distance information implicit in the shape of each ASR to find its way home. At random positions in the homeward journey, the robot calculates its orientation towards home. The robot's performances for both problems are evaluated and found to be surprisingly accurate.
This paper presents a novel algorithm for computing absolute space representations (ASRs) in Yeap, W.K. and Jefferies, M. (1988) for mobile robots equipped with sonar sensors and an odometer. The robot is allowed to wander freely (i.e. without following any fixed path) along the corridors in an office environment from a given start point to an end point. It then wanders from the end point back to the start point. The resulting ASRs computed in both directions are shown
We present a novel split and merge based method for dividing a given metric map into distinct regions, thus effectively creating a topological map on top of a metric one. The initial metric map is obtained from range data that are converted to a geometric map consisting of linear approximations of the indoor environment.
The splitting is done using an objective function that computes the quality of a region, based on criteria such as the average region width (to distinguish big rooms from corridors) and overall direction (which accounts for sharp bends).
A regularization term is used in order to avoid the formation of very small regions, which may originate from missing or unreliable sensor data. Experiments based on data acquired by a mobile robot equipped with sonar sensors are presented, which demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method.