Progress in 3-D Mapping and Localization
Thispaperis a summaryof resultsobtainedin thepastfew years in theareaof 3-D mappingandrobot localization. Theemphasisof this work is thereconstructionof three-dimensional representationsof theenvironmentfromsensor information,assuminginaccurateor absentrobotposeinformation,andassuminggeneral 3-D configurations,e.g., not limited to 2-1/2Delevationmaps.Theapproachesaredividedinto twobroadclasses:Surfacematching, in which large piecesof 3-D surfacesare matchedacrossobservationsin order to recover thetransformationsbetweenobservations,andfeaturematching in which individual featuresextractedfromtheinputdataarematched.Surfacematching is mostapplicableto robotsequippedwith range sensor s such asstereoor ladar, while feature matching is most applicableto video-basedsystems. We reporton experimentsandapplicationsin theareasof terrain mapbuilding, modelingof interior environments,modelingof individual objectsfrom manyviews,cooperative stereovision using teams of r obots, and simultaneous r ecovery of structur e and motion fr om bearing-only sensor s.