Analysis of methods for reducing line segments in maps: Towards a general approach

International audienceSegment-based maps are emerging as an efficient way to represent the environments in which mobile robots operate. When compared to grid-based maps, maps composed of line segments usually need less space to be stored. However, very little effort has been devoted to methods that allow to reduce the size of segment-based maps by removing redundant line segments that represent the same object in the environment. This problem is usually addressed with rather ad hoc methods that are embedded in mapping systems. In this paper, we put forward the problem of reducing the size of segment-based maps by presenting a survey of the existing methods and by experimentally evaluating some of them. Our results can be used to set out some guidelines for the development of a general approach to reducing redundant line segments in maps

Map Generation by Cooperative Low-Cost Robots in Structured Unknown Environments

In this paper we present some results obtained with a troupe of low-cost robots designed to cooperatively explore unknown structured orthogonal environments. In order to improve the covering of the explored zone the robots show different behaviours (routine, normal and anxious) and cooperate by transferring each other the perceived environment when they meet; therefore, not all the information of the non-returning robots is lost provided that they had encountered robots that safely returned. The returning robots deliver to a host their perceived and communicated (by other robots) partial maps and the host incrementally generates the most plausible map of the environment. To perform the map generation, a fusion, completion and alignment process of the partial maps, based on fuzzy techniques, has been developed.Peer Reviewe