3,111 research outputs found
A Spectral Learning Approach to Range-Only SLAM
We present a novel spectral learning algorithm for simultaneous localization
and mapping (SLAM) from range data with known correspondences. This algorithm
is an instance of a general spectral system identification framework, from
which it inherits several desirable properties, including statistical
consistency and no local optima. Compared with popular batch optimization or
multiple-hypothesis tracking (MHT) methods for range-only SLAM, our spectral
approach offers guaranteed low computational requirements and good tracking
performance. Compared with popular extended Kalman filter (EKF) or extended
information filter (EIF) approaches, and many MHT ones, our approach does not
need to linearize a transition or measurement model; such linearizations can
cause severe errors in EKFs and EIFs, and to a lesser extent MHT, particularly
for the highly non-Gaussian posteriors encountered in range-only SLAM. We
provide a theoretical analysis of our method, including finite-sample error
bounds. Finally, we demonstrate on a real-world robotic SLAM problem that our
algorithm is not only theoretically justified, but works well in practice: in a
comparison of multiple methods, the lowest errors come from a combination of
our algorithm with batch optimization, but our method alone produces nearly as
good a result at far lower computational cost
Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Age
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent
construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the
state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing
progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications,
and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey
the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto
standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad
set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric
and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees,
active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously
serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By
looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open
challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific
investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that
often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and
Is SLAM solved
Modeling and interpolation of the ambient magnetic field by Gaussian processes
Anomalies in the ambient magnetic field can be used as features in indoor
positioning and navigation. By using Maxwell's equations, we derive and present
a Bayesian non-parametric probabilistic modeling approach for interpolation and
extrapolation of the magnetic field. We model the magnetic field components
jointly by imposing a Gaussian process (GP) prior on the latent scalar
potential of the magnetic field. By rewriting the GP model in terms of a
Hilbert space representation, we circumvent the computational pitfalls
associated with GP modeling and provide a computationally efficient and
physically justified modeling tool for the ambient magnetic field. The model
allows for sequential updating of the estimate and time-dependent changes in
the magnetic field. The model is shown to work well in practice in different
applications: we demonstrate mapping of the magnetic field both with an
inexpensive Raspberry Pi powered robot and on foot using a standard smartphone.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Robotic
Real-time Model-based Image Color Correction for Underwater Robots
Recently, a new underwater imaging formation model presented that the
coefficients related to the direct and backscatter transmission signals are
dependent on the type of water, camera specifications, water depth, and imaging
range. This paper proposes an underwater color correction method that
integrates this new model on an underwater robot, using information from a
pressure depth sensor for water depth and a visual odometry system for
estimating scene distance. Experiments were performed with and without a color
chart over coral reefs and a shipwreck in the Caribbean. We demonstrate the
performance of our proposed method by comparing it with other statistic-,
physic-, and learning-based color correction methods. Applications for our
proposed method include improved 3D reconstruction and more robust underwater
robot navigation.Comment: Accepted at the 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent
Robots and Systems (IROS
Batch Nonlinear Continuous-Time Trajectory Estimation as Exactly Sparse Gaussian Process Regression
In this paper, we revisit batch state estimation through the lens of Gaussian
process (GP) regression. We consider continuous-discrete estimation problems
wherein a trajectory is viewed as a one-dimensional GP, with time as the
independent variable. Our continuous-time prior can be defined by any
nonlinear, time-varying stochastic differential equation driven by white noise;
this allows the possibility of smoothing our trajectory estimates using a
variety of vehicle dynamics models (e.g., `constant-velocity'). We show that
this class of prior results in an inverse kernel matrix (i.e., covariance
matrix between all pairs of measurement times) that is exactly sparse
(block-tridiagonal) and that this can be exploited to carry out GP regression
(and interpolation) very efficiently. When the prior is based on a linear,
time-varying stochastic differential equation and the measurement model is also
linear, this GP approach is equivalent to classical, discrete-time smoothing
(at the measurement times); when a nonlinearity is present, we iterate over the
whole trajectory to maximize accuracy. We test the approach experimentally on a
simultaneous trajectory estimation and mapping problem using a mobile robot
dataset.Comment: Submitted to Autonomous Robots on 20 November 2014, manuscript #
AURO-D-14-00185, 16 pages, 7 figure
Spectral analysis for long-term robotic mapping
This paper presents a new approach to mobile robot mapping in long-term scenarios. So far, the environment models used in mobile robotics have been tailored to capture static scenes and dealt with the environment changes by means of âmemory decayâ. While these models keep up with slowly changing environments, their utilization in dynamic, real world
environments is difficult.
The representation proposed in this paper models the environmentâs spatio-temporal dynamics by its frequency spectrum. The spectral representation of the time domain allows to identify, analyse and remember regularly occurring environment processes in a computationally efficient way. Knowledge of the periodicity of the different environment processes constitutes the model predictive capabilities, which are especially useful for long-term mobile robotics scenarios.
In the experiments presented, the proposed approach is applied to data collected by a mobile robot patrolling an indoor
environment over a period of one week. Three scenarios are investigated, including intruder detection and 4D mapping. The results indicate that the proposed method allows to represent arbitrary timescales with constant (and low) memory requirements, achieving compression rates up to 106 . Moreover, the representation allows for prediction of future environmentâs state with ⌠90% precision
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