Exploration-Based SLAM (e-SLAM) for the Indoor Mobile Robot Using Lidar

Abstract

This paper attempts to uncover one possible method for the IMR (indoor mobile robot) to perform indoor exploration associated with SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) using LiDAR. Specifically, the IMR is required to construct a map when it has landed on an unexplored floor of a building. We had implemented the e-SLAM (exploration-based SLAM) using the coordinate transformation and the navigation prediction techniques to achieve that purpose in the engineering school building which consists of many 100-m2 labs, corridors, elevator waiting space and the lobby. We first derive the LiDAR mesh for the orthogonal walls and filter out the static furniture and dynamic humans in the same space as the IMR. Then, we define the LiDAR pose frame including the translation and rotation from the orthogonal walls. According to the MSC (most significant corner) obtained from the intersection of the orthogonal walls, we calculate the displacement of the IMR. The orientation of the IMR is calculated from the alignment of orthogonal walls in the consecutive LiDAR pose frames, which is also assisted by the LQE (linear quadratic estimation) method. All the computation can be done in a single processor machine in real-time. The e-SLAM technique leads to a potential for the in-house service robot to start operation without having pre-scan LiDAR maps, which can save the installation time of the service robot. In this study, we use only the LiDAR and compared our result with the IMU to verify the consistency between the two navigation sensors in the experiments. The scenario of the experiment consists of rooms, corridors, elevators, and the lobby, which is common to most office buildings.

Path Planning and Motion Control of Indoor Mobile Robot under Exploration-Based SLAM (e-SLAM)

“…The exploration-based SLAM [ 2 ] was used to construct the map of an explored floor on smooth pavement using LiDAR. The current research work is to achieve the automatic exploration process for the indoor mobile robot (IMR) to fill out the missing pieces from the puzzle map.…”

“…A global positioning system (GPS) is applied to the outdoor environment to achieve vehicle localization and navigation. However, the indoor environment requires a completely different methodology for vehicle localization and navigation because of the absence of satellite positioning signals [ 2 ].…”

“…SLAM has been widely researched, and many different variations have been proposed. It can be classified into filter-based and optimization-based approaches [ 2 , 3 ]. It maintains the information about the environment and the states of the robot as a probability density function.…”

“…In our previous study, described in [ 2 ], an exploration-based SLAM (e-SLAM) method is introduced for indoor mapping using only LiDAR. It meshes out vertical walls and trims the static furniture and the moving object from the same space of the IMR for the LiDAR mesh formation.…”

Real-Time 3D Mapping in Isolated Industrial Terrain with Use of Mobile Robotic Vehicle

“…In recent decades, many designs for mobile robotic vehicles created to explore a partially or fully unknown environment have been developed and demonstrated in both academia and industry [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), currently one of the main research topics in robotics, appears to be the attractive solution to this problem [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The objective of SLAM is to concurrently build a map of investigated environment and allow the moving vehicle to localize itself within this environment using its on-board sensors.…”