Multiple Sensor Indoor Mapping Using a Mobile Robot

Introduction Mapping – the ability for a robot to observe and build a representation of its environment – is a critical task for mobile robots. Indeed, mapping is a necessary component of autonomous navigation, in addition to perception and localization. Mapping is achieved by measuring the environment with sensors, such as laser, sonar, or visual-based techniques, and using probabilistic models to estimate the state of the environment. For indoor mobile robots, mapping can be used to build the indoor environment boundary (e.g., building walls). This study will investigate how multiple sensors can be used in concert to generate a map of the indoor environment using a mobile robot. Understanding the improvement of multiple sensor mapping over single sensor mapping may prove valuable in the design of mobile robots and autonomy routines, as tradeoffs may exist between any improvement in mapping accuracy and the decrease in weight, useful payload capability, and increase in computational resources for installing and utilizing the additional sensors.