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Article
Publication date: 19 October 2018

Hui Xiong, Youping Chen, Xiaoping Li and Bing Chen

Because submaps including a subset of the global map contain more environmental information, submap-based graph simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) has been studied by…

170

Abstract

Purpose

Because submaps including a subset of the global map contain more environmental information, submap-based graph simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) has been studied by many researchers. In most of those studies, helpful environmental information was not taken into consideration when designed the termination criterion of the submap construction process. After optimizing the graph, cumulative error within the submaps was also ignored. To address those problems, this paper aims to propose a two-level optimized graph-based SLAM algorithm.

Design/methodology/approach

Submaps are updated by extended Kalman filter SLAM while no geometric-shaped landmark models are needed; raw laser scans are treated as landmarks. A more reasonable criterion called the uncertainty index is proposed to combine with the size of the submap to terminate the submap construction process. After a submap is completed and a loop closure is found, a two-level optimization process is performed to minimize the loop closure error and the accumulated error within the submaps.

Findings

Simulation and experimental results indicate that the estimated error of the proposed algorithm is small, and the maps generated are consistent whether in global or local.

Practical implications

The proposed method is robust to sparse pedestrians and can be adapted to most indoor environments.

Originality/value

In this paper, a two-level optimized graph-based SLAM algorithm is proposed.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 45 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2024

Xiangdi Yue, Yihuan Zhang, Jiawei Chen, Junxin Chen, Xuanyi Zhou and Miaolei He

In recent decades, the field of robotic mapping has witnessed widespread research and development in light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based simultaneous localization and…

Abstract

Purpose

In recent decades, the field of robotic mapping has witnessed widespread research and development in light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques. This paper aims to provide a significant reference for researchers and engineers in robotic mapping.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper focused on the research state of LiDAR-based SLAM for robotic mapping as well as a literature survey from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations.

Findings

This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review of the LiDAR-based SLAM system based on three distinct LiDAR forms and configurations. The authors concluded that multi-robot collaborative mapping and multi-source fusion SLAM systems based on 3D LiDAR with deep learning will be new trends in the future.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first thorough survey of robotic mapping from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations. It can serve as a theoretical and practical guide for the advancement of academic and industrial robot mapping.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2017

Michał R. Nowicki, Dominik Belter, Aleksander Kostusiak, Petr Cížek, Jan Faigl and Piotr Skrzypczyński

This paper aims to evaluate four different simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems in the context of localization of multi-legged walking robots equipped with compact…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to evaluate four different simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems in the context of localization of multi-legged walking robots equipped with compact RGB-D sensors. This paper identifies problems related to in-motion data acquisition in a legged robot and evaluates the particular building blocks and concepts applied in contemporary SLAM systems against these problems. The SLAM systems are evaluated on two independent experimental set-ups, applying a well-established methodology and performance metrics.

Design/methodology/approach

Four feature-based SLAM architectures are evaluated with respect to their suitability for localization of multi-legged walking robots. The evaluation methodology is based on the computation of the absolute trajectory error (ATE) and relative pose error (RPE), which are performance metrics well-established in the robotics community. Four sequences of RGB-D frames acquired in two independent experiments using two different six-legged walking robots are used in the evaluation process.

Findings

The experiments revealed that the predominant problem characteristics of the legged robots as platforms for SLAM are the abrupt and unpredictable sensor motions, as well as oscillations and vibrations, which corrupt the images captured in-motion. The tested adaptive gait allowed the evaluated SLAM systems to reconstruct proper trajectories. The bundle adjustment-based SLAM systems produced best results, thanks to the use of a map, which enables to establish a large number of constraints for the estimated trajectory.

Research limitations/implications

The evaluation was performed using indoor mockups of terrain. Experiments in more natural and challenging environments are envisioned as part of future research.

Practical implications

The lack of accurate self-localization methods is considered as one of the most important limitations of walking robots. Thus, the evaluation of the state-of-the-art SLAM methods on legged platforms may be useful for all researchers working on walking robots’ autonomy and their use in various applications, such as search, security, agriculture and mining.

Originality/value

The main contribution lies in the integration of the state-of-the-art SLAM methods on walking robots and their thorough experimental evaluation using a well-established methodology. Moreover, a SLAM system designed especially for RGB-D sensors and real-world applications is presented in details.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 44 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2019

Haoyao Chen, Hailin Huang, Ye Qin, Yanjie Li and Yunhui Liu

Multi-robot laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in large-scale environments is an essential but challenging issue in mobile robotics, especially in situations…

Abstract

Purpose

Multi-robot laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in large-scale environments is an essential but challenging issue in mobile robotics, especially in situations wherein no prior knowledge is available between robots. Moreover, the cumulative errors of every individual robot exert a serious negative effect on loop detection and map fusion. To address these problems, this paper aims to propose an efficient approach that combines laser and vision measurements.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-robot visual laser-SLAM is developed to realize robust and efficient SLAM in large-scale environments; both vision and laser loop detections are integrated to detect robust loops. A method based on oriented brief (ORB) feature detection and bag of words (BoW) is developed, to ensure the robustness and computational effectiveness of the multi-robot SLAM system. A robust and efficient graph fusion algorithm is proposed to merge pose graphs from different robots.

Findings

The proposed method can detect loops more quickly and accurately than the laser-only SLAM, and it can fuse the submaps of each single robot to promote the efficiency, accuracy and robustness of the system.

Originality/value

Compared with the state of art of multi-robot SLAM approaches, the paper proposed a novel and more sophisticated approach. The vision-based and laser-based loops are integrated to realize a robust loop detection. The ORB features and BoW technologies are further utilized to gain real-time performance. Finally, random sample consensus and least-square methodologies are used to remove the outlier loops among robots.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 39 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2009

Hui Wang, Michael Jenkin and Patrick Dymond

A simultaneous solution to the localization and mapping problem of a graph‐like environment by a swarm of robots requires solutions to task coordination and map merging. The…

Abstract

Purpose

A simultaneous solution to the localization and mapping problem of a graph‐like environment by a swarm of robots requires solutions to task coordination and map merging. The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of two different map‐merging strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Building a representation of the environment is a key problem in robotics where the problem is known as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). When large groups of robots operate within the environment, the SLAM problem becomes complicated by issues related to coordination of the elements of the swarm and integration of the environmental representations obtained by individual swarm elements. This paper considers these issues within the formalism of a group of simulated robots operating within a graph‐like environment. Starting at a common node, the swarm partitions the unknown edges of the known graph and explores the graph for a pre‐arranged period. The swarm elements then meet at a particular time and location to integrate their partial world models. This process is repeated until the entire world has been mapped. A correctness proof of the algorithm is presented, and different coordination strategies are compared via simulation.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that a swarm of identical robots, each equipped with its own marker, and capable of simple sensing and action abilities, can explore and map an unknown graph‐like environment. Moreover, experimental results show that exploration with multiple robots can provide an improvement in exploration effort over a single robot and that this improvement does not scale linearly with the size of the swarm.

Research limitations/implications

The paper represents efforts toward exploration and mapping in a graph‐like world with robot swarms. The paper suggests several extensions and variations including the development of adaptive partitioning and rendezvous schedule strategies to further improve both overall swarm efficiency and individual robot utilization during exploration.

Originality/value

The novelty associated with this paper is the formal extension of the single robot graph‐like exploration of Dudek et al. to robot swarms. The paper here examines fundamental limits to multiple robot SLAM and does this within a topological framework. Results obtained within this topological formalism can be readily transferred to the more traditional metric representation.

Details

International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-378X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2024

Bushi Chen, Xunyu Zhong, Han Xie, Pengfei Peng, Huosheng Hu, Xungao Zhong and Qiang Liu

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) play a crucial role in industrial and service fields. The paper aims to build a LiDAR-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system…

Abstract

Purpose

Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) play a crucial role in industrial and service fields. The paper aims to build a LiDAR-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system used by AMRs to overcome challenges in dynamic and changing environments.

Design/methodology/approach

This research introduces SLAM-RAMU, a lifelong SLAM system that addresses these challenges by providing precise and consistent relocalization and autonomous map updating (RAMU). During the mapping process, local odometry is obtained using iterative error state Kalman filtering, while back-end loop detection and global pose graph optimization are used for accurate trajectory correction. In addition, a fast point cloud segmentation module is incorporated to robustly distinguish between floor, walls and roof in the environment. The segmented point clouds are then used to generate a 2.5D grid map, with particular emphasis on floor detection to filter the prior map and eliminate dynamic artifacts. In the positioning process, an initial pose alignment method is designed, which combines 2D branch-and-bound search with 3D iterative closest point registration. This method ensures high accuracy even in scenes with similar characteristics. Subsequently, scan-to-map registration is performed using the segmented point cloud on the prior map. The system also includes a map updating module that takes into account historical point cloud segmentation results. It selectively incorporates or excludes new point cloud data to ensure consistent reflection of the real environment in the map.

Findings

The performance of the SLAM-RAMU system was evaluated in real-world environments and compared against state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. The results demonstrate that SLAM-RAMU achieves higher mapping quality and relocalization accuracy and exhibits robustness against dynamic obstacles and environmental changes.

Originality/value

Compared to other SOTA methods in simulation and real environments, SLAM-RAMU showed higher mapping quality, faster initial aligning speed and higher repeated localization accuracy.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2023

Jiazhong Zhang, Shuai Wang and Xiaojun Tan

The light detection and ranging sensor has been widely deployed in the area of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for its remarkable accuracy, but obvious drift…

Abstract

Purpose

The light detection and ranging sensor has been widely deployed in the area of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for its remarkable accuracy, but obvious drift phenomenon and large accumulated error are inevitable when using SLAM. The purpose of this study is to alleviate the accumulated error and drift phenomenon in the process of mapping.

Design/methodology/approach

A novel light detection and ranging SLAM system is introduced based on Normal Distributions Transform and dynamic Scan Context with switch. The pose-graph optimization is used as back-end optimization module. The loop closure detection is only operated in the scenario, while the path satisfies conditions of loop-closed.

Findings

The proposed algorithm exhibits competitiveness compared with current approaches in terms of the accumulated error and drift distance. Further, supplementary to the place recognition process that is usually performed for loop detection, the authors introduce a novel dynamic constraint that takes into account the change in the direction of the robot throughout the total path trajectory between corresponding frames, which contributes to avoiding potential misidentifications and improving the efficiency.

Originality/value

The proposed system is based on Normal Distributions Transform and dynamic Scan Context with switch. The pose-graph optimization is used as back-end optimization module. The loop closure detection is only operated in the scenario, while the path satisfies condition of loop-closed.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 50 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 June 2023

Qamar Ul Islam, Haidi Ibrahim, Pan Kok Chin, Kevin Lim and Mohd Zaid Abdullah

Many popular simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques have low accuracy, especially when localizing environments containing dynamically moving objects since their…

Abstract

Purpose

Many popular simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques have low accuracy, especially when localizing environments containing dynamically moving objects since their presence can potentially cause inaccurate data associations. To address this issue, the proposed FADM-SLAM system aims to improve the accuracy of SLAM techniques in environments containing dynamically moving objects. It uses a pipeline of feature-based approaches accompanied by sparse optical flow and multi-view geometry as constraints to achieve this goal.

Design/methodology/approach

FADM-SLAM, which works with monocular, stereo and RGB-D sensors, combines an instance segmentation network incorporating an intelligent motion detection strategy (iM) with an optical flow technique to improve location accuracy. The proposed AS-SLAM system comprises four principal modules, which are the optical flow mask and iM, the ego motion estimation, dynamic point detection and the feature-based extraction framework.

Findings

Experiment results using the publicly available RGBD-Bonn data set indicate that FADM-SLAM outperforms established visual SLAM systems in highly dynamic conditions.

Originality/value

In summary, the first module generates the indication of dynamic objects by using the optical flow and iM with geometric-wise segmentation, which is then used by the second module to compute the starting point of a posture. The third module, meanwhile, first searches for the dynamic feature points in the environment, and second, eliminates them from further processing. An algorithm based on epipolar constraints is implemented to do this. In this way, only the static feature points are retained, which are then fed to the fourth module for extracting important features.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. 43 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 August 2022

Yi Jiang, Ting Wang, Shiliang Shao and Lebing Wang

In large-scale environments and unstructured scenarios, the accuracy and robustness of traditional light detection and ranging (LiDAR) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM

Abstract

Purpose

In large-scale environments and unstructured scenarios, the accuracy and robustness of traditional light detection and ranging (LiDAR) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms are reduced, and the algorithms might even be completely ineffective. To overcome these problems, this study aims to propose a 3D LiDAR SLAM method for ground-based mobile robots, which uses a 3D LiDAR fusion inertial measurement unit (IMU) to establish an environment map and realize real-time localization.

Design/methodology/approach

First, we use a normal distributions transform (NDT) algorithm based on a local map with a corresponding motion prediction model for point cloud registration in the front-end. Next, point cloud features are tightly coupled with IMU angle constraints, ground constraints and gravity constraints for graph-based optimization in the back-end. Subsequently, the cumulative error is reduced by adding loop closure detection.

Findings

The algorithm is tested using a public data set containing indoor and outdoor scenarios. The results confirm that the proposed algorithm has high accuracy and robustness.

Originality/value

To improve the accuracy and robustness of SLAM, this method proposed in the paper introduced the NDT algorithm in the front-end and designed ground constraints and gravity constraints in the back-end. The proposed method has a satisfactory performance when applied to ground-based mobile robots in complex environments experiments.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 50 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2023

Yong Qin and Haidong Yu

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the challenges and potential solutions in Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), laying the foundation for its…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the challenges and potential solutions in Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), laying the foundation for its applications in autonomous navigation, intelligent driving and other related domains.

Design/methodology/approach

In analyzing the latest research, the review presents representative achievements, including methods to enhance efficiency, robustness and accuracy. Additionally, the review provides insights into the future development direction of Visual SLAM, emphasizing the importance of improving system robustness when dealing with dynamic environments. The research methodology of this review involves a literature review and data set analysis, enabling a comprehensive understanding of the current status and prospects in the field of Visual SLAM.

Findings

This review aims to comprehensively evaluate the latest advances and challenges in the field of Visual SLAM. By collecting and analyzing relevant research papers and classic data sets, it reveals the current issues faced by Visual SLAM in complex environments and proposes potential solutions. The review begins by introducing the fundamental principles and application areas of Visual SLAM, followed by an in-depth discussion of the challenges encountered when dealing with dynamic objects and complex environments. To enhance the performance of SLAM algorithms, researchers have made progress by integrating different sensor modalities, improving feature extraction and incorporating deep learning techniques, driving advancements in the field.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the originality of this review lies in its in-depth analysis of current research hotspots and predictions for future development, providing valuable references for researchers in this field.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 50 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

1 – 10 of 199