Topic
Robotic mapping
About: Robotic mapping is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 310 publications have been published within this topic receiving 10069 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
1 Jun 2001
TL;DR: The paper proves that a solution to the SLAM problem is indeed possible and discusses a number of key issues raised by the solution including suboptimal map-building algorithms and map management.
Abstract: The simultaneous localization and map building (SLAM) problem asks if it is possible for an autonomous vehicle to start in an unknown location in an unknown environment and then to incrementally build a map of this environment while simultaneously using this map to compute absolute vehicle location. Starting from estimation-theoretic foundations of this problem, the paper proves that a solution to the SLAM problem is indeed possible. The underlying structure of the SLAM problem is first elucidated. A proof that the estimated map converges monotonically to a relative map with zero uncertainty is then developed. It is then shown that the absolute accuracy of the map and the vehicle location reach a lower bound defined only by the initial vehicle uncertainty. Together, these results show that it is possible for an autonomous vehicle to start in an unknown location in an unknown environment and, using relative observations only, incrementally build a perfect map of the world and to compute simultaneously a bounded estimate of vehicle location. The paper also describes a substantial implementation of the SLAM algorithm on a vehicle operating in an outdoor environment using millimeter-wave radar to provide relative map observations. This implementation is used to demonstrate how some key issues such as map management and data association can be handled in a practical environment. The results obtained are cross-compared with absolute locations of the map landmarks obtained by surveying. In conclusion, the paper discusses a number of key issues raised by the solution to the SLAM problem including suboptimal map-building algorithms and map management.
3,130 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2003TL;DR: This article provides a comprehensive introduction into the field of robotic mapping, with a focus on indoor mapping, and describes and compares various probabilistic techniques, as they are presently being applied to a vast array of mobile robot mapping problems.
Abstract: This article provides a comprehensive introduction into the field of robotic mapping, with a focus on indoor mapping. It describes and compares various probabilistic techniques, as they are presently being applied to a vast array of mobile robot mapping problems. The history of robotic mapping is also detailed, along with an extensive list of open research problems.
1,714 citations
TL;DR: This paper presents a robotic mapping method based on locally consistent 3D laser range scans that combines Iterative Closest Point scan matching, combined with a heuristic for closed loop detection and a global relaxation method, results in a highly precise mapping system.
Abstract: 6D SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) or 6D concurrent localization and mapping of mobile robots considers six dimensions for the robot pose, namely, the x, y, and z coordinates and the roll, yaw, and pitch angles. Robot motion and localization on natural surfaces, e.g., driving outdoor with a mobile robot, must regard these degrees of freedom. This paper presents a robotic mapping method based on locally consistent 3D laser range scans. Iterative Closest Point scan matching, combined with a heuristic for closed loop detection and a global relaxation method, results in a highly precise mapping system. A new strategy for fast data association, cached kd-tree search, leads to feasible computing times. With no ground-truth data available for outdoor environments, point relations in maps are compared to numerical relations in uncalibrated aerial images in order to assess the metric validity of the resulting 3D maps. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
522 citations
10 Nov 2003
TL;DR: To build consistent maps of large mines with many cycles, an algorithm for estimating global correspondences and aligning robot paths is described, which enables us to recover consistent maps several hundreds of meters in diameter, without odometric information.
Abstract: This paper describes two robotic systems developed for acquiring accurate volumetric maps of underground mines. One system is based on a cart instrumented by laser range finders, pushed through a mine by people. Another is a remotely controlled mobile robot equipped with laser range finders. To build consistent maps of large mines with many cycles, we describe an algorithm for estimating global correspondences and aligning robot paths. This algorithm enables us to recover consistent maps several hundreds of meters in diameter, without odometric information. We report results obtained in two mines, a research mine in Bruceton, PA, and an abandoned coal mine in Burgettstown, PA.
315 citations
1 Jun 2013
TL;DR: This work proposes a fundamentally different approach: allow richer error models that allow the probability of a failure to be explicitly modeled, and shows that the proposed method not only allows loop closing errors to be automatically identified, but also that in extreme cases the “front-end” loop-validation systems can be unnecessary.
Abstract: The central challenge in robotic mapping is obtaining reliable data associations (or "loop closures"): state-of-the-art inference algorithms can fail catastrophically if even one erroneous loop closure is incorporated into the map. Consequently, much work has been done to push error rates closer to zero. However, a long-lived or multi-robot system will still encounter errors, leading to system failure. We propose a fundamentally different approach: allow richer error models that allow the probability of a failure to be explicitly modeled. In other words, rather than characterizing loop closures as being "right" or "wrong", we propose characterizing the error of those loop closures in a more expressive manner that can account for their non-Gaussian behavior. Our approach leads to an fully integrated Bayesian framework for dealing with error-prone data. Unlike earlier multiple-hypothesis approaches, our approach avoids exponential memory complexity and is fast enough for real-time performance. We show that the proposed method not only allows loop closing errors to be automatically identified, but also that in extreme cases, the "front-end" loop-validation systems can be unnecessary. We demonstrate our system both on standard benchmarks and on the real-world data sets that motivated this work.
281 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2018 | 16 |
| 2017 | 16 |