Tight Coupling of Laser Scanner and Inertial Measurements for a Fully Autonomous Relative Navigation Solution

The paper describes a fully autonomous relative navigation solution for urban environments (indoor and outdoor). The navigation solution is derived by combining measurements from a two-dimensional (2D) laser scanner with measurements from inertial sensors. This derivation relies on the availability of structures (lines and surfaces) within the scan range (80 m depth, typically). Navigation herein is performed in completely unknown environments. No map information is assumed to be available a priori. Indoor and outdoor live data test results are used to demonstrate performance characteristics of the laser/inertial integrated navigation. Relative positioning at the cm-level is demonstrated for indoor scenarios where well-defined features and good feature geometry are available. Test data from challenging urban environments show position errors at the meter-level after approximately 200 m of travel (between 0.6% and 0.8% of distance traveled).