This chapter presents a mapping process that can be applied to autonomous systems for obstacle avoidance and trajectory planning. It is an improvement over commonly applied obstacle mapping techniques, such as occupancy grids. Problems encountered in large outdoor scenarios are tackled and a compressed map that can be sent on low-bandwidth networks is produced. The approach is real-time capable and works in full 3-D environments. The
efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated under real operational conditions on an unmanned aerial vehicle using stereo vision for distance measurement
