This paper presents a reliable method to verify the existence of loops along the uncertain trajectory of a robot, based on proprioceptive measurements only, within a bounded-error context. The loop closure detection is one of the key points in SLAM methods, especially in homogeneous environments with difficult scenes recognitions. The proposed approach is generic and could be coupled with conve...

The Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) problem is one of the major challenges in mobile robotics. Probabilistic techniques using high-end range finding devices are well established in the field, but recent work has investigated vision-only approaches. We present an alternative approach to the leading existing techniques, which extracts approximate rotational and translation velocity i...

This paper reviews aspects of the design and construction of an active wearable camera, and describes progress in equipping it with visual processing for reactive tasks like orientation stabilisation, slaving from head movements, and 2D tracking. The paper goes on to describe a first application of frame-rate simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) to the wearable camera. Though relevant f...

Qualitative constraint calculi are representation formalisms that allow for efficient reasoning about spatial and temporal information. Many of the calculi discussed in the field of Qualitative Spatial and Temporal Reasoning can be defined as combinations of other, simpler and more compact formalisms. On the other hand, existing calculi can be combined to a new formalism in which one can repres...

We present an approach which uses 3D visual landmarks for solving the correspondence problem in Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM). The 3D landmarks are computed from camera views of the robot’s local space. Using multiple 2D views, identified landmarks are projected, with their correct location and orientation into 3D world space by scene reconstruction. As the robot moves around the...

In their basic form, Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) systems rely on metric maps to produce meaningful camera pose measurements. As researchers shift their focus towards integrating higher levels of data representations, we argue that the performance of such systems requires a mutually beneficial, tight integration between metric, topological and semantic maps. Therefore, w...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix CHAPTER

In task-oriented exploration a robot has to direct its sight and delving towards the most promising regions of the environment, according to the task, in order to optimize its search. If the goal is dynamically set on the basis of what it is perceived, attention plays a crucial role, as it allows to combine fast glancing with accurate analysis, enabling the robot to quickly jump to conclusion b...

In this paper, we present a real-time algorithm for online simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with detection and tracking of moving objects (DATMO) in dynamic outdoor environments from a moving vehicle equipped with laser sensor and odometry. To correct vehicle location from odometry we introduce a new fast implementation of incremental scan matching method that can work reliably in d...

In this paper we present several interest points detectors and we analyze their suitability when used as landmark extractors for vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM). For this purpose, we evaluate the detectors according to their repeatability under changes in viewpoint and scale. These are the desired requirements for visual landmarks. Several experiments were carried out...