We present an extension to our feature based mapping technique that allows for the use of planar surfaces such as walls, tables, counters, or other planar surfaces as landmarks in our mapper. These planar surfaces are measured both in 3D point clouds, as well as 2D laser scans. These sensing modalities compliment each other well, as they differ significantly in their measurable fields of view and maximum ranges. We present experiments to evaluate the contributions of each type of sensor.

Classification of spatial regions based on semantic information in an indoor environment enables robot tasks such as navigation or mobile manipulation to be spatially aware. The availability of contextual information can significantly simplify operation of a mobile platform. We present methods for 3utomHted recognition and classification of SI)aceS into separHte semantic regions and use of sueh information for generHtion of a topological map of an environment. The association of semantic labels with spatial regions is based on Humal/ Augmented Mappil/g. T he methods presented in this paper are evalu ated both in simu lation and on real data acquired from an office environment.

Abstract-Object discovery and modeling have been widely studied in the computer vision and robotics communities. SLAM approaches that make use of objects and higher level features have also recently been proposed. Using higher level features provides several benefits: these can be more discriminative, which helps data association, and can serve to inform service robotic tasks that require higher level information, such as object models and poses. We propose an approach for online object discovery and object modeling, and extend a SLAM system to utilize these discovered and modeled objects as landmarks to help localize the robot in an online manner. Such landmarks are particularly useful for detecting loop closures in larger maps. In addition to the map, our system outputs a database of detected object models for use in future SLAM or service robotic tasks. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the approach's ability to detect and model objects, as well as to improve SLAM results by detecting loop closures.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)is not a problem with a one-size-fits-all solution. The literature includes a variety of SLAM approaches targeted at different environments, platforms, sensors, CPU budgets, and applications. We propose OmniMapper, a modular multimodal framework and toolbox for solving SLAM problems. The system can be used to generate pose graphs, do feature-based SLAM, and also includes tools for semantic mapping. Multiple measurement types from different sensors can be combined for multimodal mapping. It is open with standard interfaces to allow easy integration of new sensors and feature types. We present a detailed description of the mapping approach, as well as a software framework that implements this, and present detailed descriptions of its applications to several domains including mapping with a service robot in an indoor environment, largescale mapping on a PackBot, and mapping with a handheld RGBD camera.