Distributed stereo vision‐based 6D localization and mapping for multi‐robot teams

Joint simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) constitutes the basis for cooperative action in multi‐robot teams. We designed a stereo vision‐based 6D SLAM system combining local and global methods to benefit from their particular advantages: (1) Decoupled local reference filters on each robot for real‐time, long‐term stable state estimation required for stabilization, control and fast obstacle avoidance; (2) Online graph optimization with a novel graph topology and intra‐ as well as inter‐robot loop closures through an improved submap matching method to provide global multi‐robot pose and map estimates; (3) Distribution of the processing of high‐frequency and high‐bandwidth measurements enabling the exchange of aggregated and thus compacted map data. As a result, we gain robustness with respect to communication losses between robots. We evaluated our improved map matcher on simulated and real‐world datasets and present our full system in five real‐world multi‐robot experiments in areas of up 3,000 m² (bounding box), including visual robot detections and submap matches as loop‐closure constraints. Further, we demonstrate its application to autonomous multi‐robot exploration in a challenging rough‐terrain environment at a Moon‐analogue site located on a volcano.     

空地正交视角下的多机器人协同定位及融合建图

针对单一机器人在复杂场景下进行同步定位与建图存在的视角局限等问题,本文提出了一种空地正交视角下的空中无人机与地面机器人协同定位与融合建图方法.鉴于无人机的空中视角与地面机器人视角属于正交关系,该方法主要思想是解决空地正交视角的坐标系转换问题.首先,设计了一种空中无人机和地面机器人协同定位与建图的框架,通过无人机提供的全局俯视图像与地面机器人的局部平视图像获得全面丰富的场景信息.在此基础上,通过融合惯性测量单元和图像信息修正偏移并优化轨迹,利用地面机器人上带有尺度信息的视觉标识,获得坐标系转换矩阵以融合地图.最后多组真实场景实验验证了该方法具有有效性,是空地协同多机器人协同定位及融合建图(simultaneous localization and mapping, SLAM)领域中值得参考的方法.     

基于Voronoi地图表示方法的同步定位与地图创建

针对基于混合米制地图机器人同步定位与地图创建 (Simultaneous localization and mapping, SLAM)中地图划分方法不完善的问题, 提出了基于Voronoi地图表示方法的同步定位与地图创建算法VorSLAM. 该算法在全局坐标系下创建特征地图, 并根据此特征地图使用Voronoi图唯一地划分地图空间, 在每一个划分内部创建一个相对于特征的局部稠密地图. 特征地图与各个局部地图最终一起连续稠密地描述了环境. Voronoi地图表示方法解决了地图划分的唯一性问题, 理论证明局部地图可以完整描述该划分所对应的环境轮廓. 该地图表示方法一个基本特点是特征与局部地图一一对应, 每个特征都关联一个定义在该特征上的局部地图. 基于该特点, 提出了一个基于形状匹配的数据关联算法, 用以解决传统数据关联算法出现的多重关联问题. 一个公寓弧形走廊的实验验证了VorSLAM算法和基于形状匹配的数据关联方法的有效性.     

基于主动环形闭合约束的移动机器人分层同时定位和地图创建

基于Rao-Blackwellized粒子滤波器提出了一种基于主动闭环策略的移动机器人分层同时定位和地图创建(simultaneous localization and mapping,SLAM)方法,基于信息熵的主动闭环策略同时考虑机器人位姿和地图的不确定性;局部几何特征地图之间的相对关系通过一致性算法估计,并通过环形闭合约束的最小化过程回溯修正.在仅有单目视觉和里程计的基础上,建立了鲁棒的感知模型;通过有效的尺度不变特征变换(scale invariant feature transform,SIFT)方法提取环境特征,基于KD-Tree的最近邻搜索算法实现特征匹配.实际实验表明该方法为实现SLAM提供了一种有效可靠的途径.     

Real-time SLAM relocalization with online learning of binary feature indexing

A visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system usually contains a relocalization module to recover the camera pose after tracking failure. The core of this module is to establish correspondences between map points and key points in the image, which is typically achieved by local image feature matching. Since recently emerged binary features have orders of magnitudes higher extraction speed than traditional features such as scale invariant feature transform, they can be applied to develop a real-time relocalization module once an efficient method of binary feature matching is provided. In this paper, we propose such a method by indexing binary features with hashing. Being different from the popular locality sensitive hashing, the proposed method constructs the hash keys by an online learning process instead of pure randomness. Specifically, the hash keys are trained with the aim of attaining uniform hash buckets and high collision rates of matched feature pairs, which makes the method more efficient on approximate nearest neighbor search. By distributing the online learning into the simultaneous localization and mapping process, we successfully apply the method to SLAM relocalization. Experiments show that camera poses can be recovered in real time even when there are tens of thousands of landmarks in the map.     

Large-Scale SLAM Building Conditionally Independent Local Maps: Application to Monocular Vision

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms based on local maps have been demonstrated to be well suited for mapping large environments as they reduce the computational cost and improve the consistency of the final estimation. The main contribution of this paper is a novel submapping technique that does not require independence between maps. The technique is based on the intrinsic structure of the SLAM problem that allows the building of submaps that can share information, remaining conditionally independent. The resulting algorithm obtains local maps in constant time during the exploration of new terrain and recovers the global map in linear time after simple loop closures without introducing any approximations besides the inherent extended Kalman filter linearizations. The memory requirements are also linear with the size of the map. As the algorithm works in a covariance form, well-known data-association techniques can be used in the usual manner. We present experimental results using a handheld monocular camera, building a map along a closed-loop trajectory of 140 m in a public square, with people and other clutter. Our results show that the combination of conditional independence, which enables the system to share the camera and feature states between submaps, and local coordinates, which reduce the effects of linearization errors, allow us to obtain precise maps of large areas with pure monocular SLAM in real time.      

Line Segment-Based Indoor Mapping with Salient Line Feature Extraction

We present a method of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in a large indoor environment using a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter (RBPF) along with a line segment as a landmark. To represent the environment in a compact form, we use only two end points of a line segment, thus reducing computational cost in modeling line segment uncertainty. With a modified scan point clustering method, the proposed adaptive iterative end point fitting contributes to the estimation of line parameters by considering noisy scan points near end points. Thus, by line segment matching the robot is localized well in a local frame. We also introduce an online and offline method of global line merging, which provides a more compact map by removing spurious lines and merging collinear lines. Each of our approaches is efficiently integrated into the proposed RBPF-SLAM framework. In experiments with well-known data sets, the proposed method provides reliable SLAM and compact map representation even in a cluttered environment.     

一种基于半直接视觉里程计的RGB-D SLAM算法

提出了一种新的基于半直接视觉里程计的RGB-D SLAM（同步定位与地图创建）算法,同时利用直接法和传统特征点法的优势,结合鲁棒的后端优化和闭环检测,有效提高了算法在复杂环境中的定位和建图精度．在定位阶段,采用直接法估计相机的初始位姿,然后通过特征点匹配和最小化重投影误差进一步优化位姿,通过筛选地图点并优化位姿输出策略,使算法能够处理稀疏纹理、光照变化、移动物体等难题．算法具有全局重定位的能力．在后端优化阶段,提出了一种新的关键帧选取策略,同时保留直接法选取的局部关键帧和特征点法选取的全局关键帧,并行地维护2种关键帧,分别在滑动窗口和特征地图中对它们进行优化．算法通过对全局关键帧进行闭环检测和优化,提高SLAM的全局一致性．基于标准数据集和真实场景的实验结果表明,算法的性能在许多实际场景中优于主流的RGB-D SLAM算法,对纹理稀疏和有移动物体干扰的环境的鲁棒性较强．     

面向数据共享的多无人机协同SLAM方法

协同即时定位与地图构建(SLAM)建立在多无人机的联合感知能力之上,通过局部地图的交互融合构建一个增量式全局环境地图,以提高多无人机任务协同的准确性、实时性和鲁棒性.针对多无人系统协同定位与构图中数据高效共享与利用的难题,面向快速、准确、大范围多机协同SLAM需求,本文提出了一种基于集中式架构的多无人机局部地图数据高效...     

基于扫描匹配的室外环境SLAM 方法

针对室外环境中的机器人“绑架”问题,提出了基于地图匹配的SLAM方法．该方法舍弃了机器人里程计信息, 只利用局部地图和全局地图的图形相关性进行机器人定位．方法的核心是多重估计数据关联,并将奇异值分解应用到机器人位姿计算中．利用Victoria Park数据集将本算法与基于扩展卡尔曼滤波器的方法进行比较,实验结果证明了本文提出的算法的有效性．     

基于局部子图匹配的SLAM 方法

针对现有的SLAM 解决方法在机器人被“绑架”时失效的问题,提出了基于局部子图匹配的方法．该 方法对现有的SLAM 解决构架进行了改进,提出交点最优匹配的特征相关算法,并且将奇异值分解方法引入机器人 定位．最后,在结构化环境下将本方法和基于扩展卡尔曼滤波器的方法进行比较,讨论了基于局部子图匹配的方法 在结构化环境中解决机器人“绑架”问题的有效性和可行性．     

基于局部子地图方法的多机器人主动同时定位与地图创建

研究了多机器人在未知环境下以主动的方式协作完成同时定位与地图创建（SLAM）的问题．引入局部子地图方法,由每个机器人建立自身周围局部区域的子地图,使多个机器人之间的地图创建相互独立,从而对全局环境的SLAM问题进行分解．而每个机器人在建立局部子地图时将主动SLAM问题转化为多目标优化问题;机器人选取最优的控制输入,使定位与地图创建的准确性、信息增益以及多机器人之间的协调关系得到综合优化．最后,通过扩展的卡尔曼滤波器（EKF）对子地图进行融合得到全局地图．仿真结果验证了该方法的有效性．     

Map Management for Efficient Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)

The solution to the simultaneous localization and map building (SLAM) problem where an autonomous vehicle starts in an unknown location in an unknown environment and then incrementally build a map of landmarks present in this environment while simultaneously using this map to compute absolute vehicle location is now well understood. Although a number of SLAM implementations have appeared in the recent literature, the need to maintain the knowledge of the relative relationships between all the landmark location estimates contained in the map makes SLAM computationally intractable in implementations containing more than a few tens of landmarks. This paper presents the theoretical basis and a practical implementation of a feature selection strategy that significantly reduces the computation requirements for SLAM. The paper shows that it is indeed possible to remove a large percentage of the landmarks from the map without making the map building process statistically inconsistent. Furthermore, it is shown that the computational cost of the SLAM algorithm can be reduced by judicious selection of landmarks to be preserved in the map.     

Hybrid robot control and SLAM for persistent navigation and mapping

For a mobile robot to operate autonomously in real-world environments, it must have an effective control system and a navigation system capable of providing robust localization, path planning and path execution. In this paper we describe work investigating synergies between mapping and control systems. We have integrated development of a control system for navigating mobile robots and a robot SLAM system. The control system is hybrid in nature and tightly coupled with the SLAM system; it uses a combination of high and low level deliberative and reactive control processes to perform obstacle avoidance, exploration, global navigation and recharging, and draws upon the map learning and localization capabilities of the SLAM system. The effectiveness of this hybrid, multi-level approach was evaluated in the context of a delivery robot scenario. Over a period of two weeks the robot performed 1143 delivery tasks to 11 different locations with only one delivery failure (from which it recovered), travelled a total distance of more than 40 km, and recharged autonomously a total of 23 times. In this paper we describe the combined control and SLAM system and discuss insights gained from its successful application in a real-world context.     

Using Absolute Metric Maps to Close Cycles in a Topological Map

In simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) the correspondence problem, specifically detecting cycles, is one of the most difficult challenges for an autonomous mobile robot. In this paper we show how significant cycles in a topological map can be identified with a companion absolute global metric map. A tight coupling of the basic unit of representation in the two maps is the key to the method. Each local space visited is represented, with its own frame of reference, as a node in the topological map. In the global absolute metric map these local space representations from the topological map are described within a single global frame of reference. The method exploits the overlap which occurs when duplicate representations are computed from different vantage points for the same local space. The representations need not be exactly aligned and can thus tolerate a limited amount of accumulated error. We show how false positive overlaps which are the result of a misaligned map, can be discounted.     

双目视觉辅助的激光惯导SLAM算法

激光同步定位与地图构建(simultaneous localization and mapping, SLAM)算法在位姿估计和构建环境地图时依赖环境结构特征信息,在结构特征缺乏的场景下,此类算法的位姿估计精度与鲁棒性将下降甚至运行失败.对此,结合惯性测量单元(inertial measurement unit, IMU)不受环境约束、相机依赖视觉纹理的特点,提出一种双目视觉辅助的激光惯导SLAM算法,以解决纯激光SLAM算法在环境结构特征缺乏时的退化问题.即采用双目视觉惯导里程计算法为激光扫描匹配模块提供视觉先验位姿,并进一步兼顾视觉约束与激光结构特征约束进行联合位姿估计.此外,提出一种互补滤波算法与因子图优化求解的组合策略,完成激光里程计参考系与惯性参考系对准,并基于因子图将激光位姿与IMU数据融合以约束IMU偏置,在视觉里程计失效的情况下为激光扫描匹配提供候补的相对位姿预测.为进一步提高全局轨迹估计精度,提出基于迭代最近点匹配算法(iterative closest point, ICP)与基于图像特征匹配算法融合的混合闭环检测策略,利用6自由度位姿图优化方法显著降低里程计漂移误...     

面向地图构建的移动机器人局部路径自主规划

移动机器人在未知场景中规划路径以自主完成定位与地图构建是机器人领域的一个重要研究课题.本文阐述了一种利用实时构建的信息熵地图动态生成机器人的局部探索路径,并综合转向约束和避障约束设计了一种基于模糊评价方法的方向选择策略跟踪生成的局部路径并进行环境构图.与现有方法相比,本文方法能够根据环境动态地生成平滑连续的局部探索路径,并能引导机器人进行障碍物躲避和完成自主构图.实验结果表明相较对比方法,本文方法的探索路程最短,观测覆盖度最高,同时整个自主构图过程所需的时间也更短.     

Adaptive localization and mapping with application to planetary rovers

Future exploration rovers will be equipped with substantial onboard autonomy. SLAM is a fundamental part and has a close connection with robot perception, planning, and control. The community has made great progress in the past decade by enabling real‐world solutions and is addressing important challenges in high‐level scalability, resources awareness, and domain adaptation. A novel adaptive SLAM system is proposed to accomplish rover navigation and computational demands. It starts from a three‐dimensional odometry dead reckoning solution and builds up to a full graph optimization that takes into account rover traction performance. A complete kinematics of the rover locomotion system improves the wheel odometry solution. In addition, an odometry error model is inferred using Gaussian processes (GPs) to predict nonsystematic errors induced by poor traction of the rover with the terrain. The nonparametric GP regression serves to adapt the localization and mapping to the current navigation demands (domain adaptation). The method brings scalability and adaptiveness to modern SLAM. Therefore, an adaptive strategy develops to adjust the image frame rate (active perception) and to influence the optimization backend by including high informative keyframes in the graph (adaptive information gain). The work is experimentally verified on a representative planetary rover under a realistic field test scenario. The results show a modern SLAM systems that adapt to the predicted error. The system maintains accuracy with less number of nodes taking the most benefit of both wheel and visual methods in a consistent graph‐based smoothing approach.     

Introducing a globally consistent orbital‐based localization system

In spite of the good performance of space exploratory missions, open issues still await to be solved. In autonomous or composite semi‐autonomous exploration of planetary land surfaces, rover localization is such an issue. The rovers of these missions (e.g., the MER and MSL) navigate relatively to their landing spot, ignoring their exact position on the coordinate system defined for the celestial body they explore. However, future advanced missions, like the Mars Sample Return, will require the localization of rovers on a global frame rather than the arbitrarily defined landing frame. In this paper we attempt to retrieve the absolute rover's location by identifying matching Regions of Interest (ROIs) between orbital and land images. In particular, we propose a system comprising two parts, an offline and an onboard one, which functions as follows: in advance of the mission a Global ROI Network (GN) is built offline by investigating the satellite images near the predicted touchdown ellipse, while during the mission a Local ROI Network (LN) is constructed counting on the images acquired by the vision system of the rover along its traverse. The last procedure relies on the accurate VO‐based relative rover localization. The LN is then paired with the GN through a modified 2D DARCES algorithm. The system has been assessed on real data collected by the ESA at the Atacama desert. The results demonstrate the system's potential to perform absolute localization, on condition that the area includes discriminative ROIs. The main contribution of this work is the enablement of global localization performed on contemporary rovers without requiring any additional hardware, such as long range LIDARs.