Simultaneous Localization and Mapping System Based on Labels

In this paper a label-based simultaneous localization and mapping（ SLAM） system is proposed to provide localization to indoor autonomous robots. In the system quick response（ QR） codes encoded with serial numbers are utilized as labels. These labels are captured by two webcams,then the distances and angles between the labels and webcams are computed. Motion estimated from the two rear wheel encoders is adjusted by observing QR codes. Our system uses the extended Kalman filter（ EKF） for the back-end state estimation. The number of deployed labels controls the state estimation dimension. The label-based EKF-SLAM system eliminates complicated processes,such as data association and loop closure detection in traditional feature-based visual SLAM systems. Our experiments include software-simulation and robot-platform test in a real environment. Results demonstrate that the system has the capability of correcting accumulated errors of dead reckoning and therefore has the advantage of superior precision.

Review of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Technology in the Agricultural Environment

Simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM)is one of the most attractive research hotspots in the field of robotics,and it is also a prerequisite for the autonomous navigation of robots.It can significantly improve the autonomous navigation ability of mobile robots and their adaptability to different application environments and contribute to the realization of real-time obstacle avoidance and dynamic path planning.Moreover,the application of SLAM technology has expanded from industrial production,intelligent transportation,special operations and other fields to agricultural environments,such as autonomous navigation,independent weeding,three-dimen-sional(3D)mapping,and independent harvesting.This paper mainly introduces the principle,sys-tem framework,latest development and application of SLAM technology,especially in agricultural environments.Firstly,the system framework and theory of the SLAM algorithm are introduced,and the SLAM algorithm is described in detail according to different sensor types.Then,the devel-opment and application of SLAM in the agricultural environment are summarized from two aspects:environment map construction,and localization and navigation of agricultural robots.Finally,the challenges and future research directions of SLAM in the agricultural environment are discussed.

Research on simultaneous localization and mapping for AUV by an improved method:Variance reduction FastSLAM with simulated annealing

At present,simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM) for an autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV)is a research hotspot.Aiming at the problem of non-linear model and non-Gaussian noise in AUV motion,an improved method of variance reduction fast simultaneous localization and mapping(FastSLAM) with simulated annealing is proposed to solve the problems of particle degradation,particle depletion and particle loss in traditional FastSLAM,which lead to the reduction of AUV location estimation accuracy.The adaptive exponential fading factor is generated by the anneal function of simulated annealing algorithm to improve the effective particle number and replace resampling.By increasing the weight of small particles and decreasing the weight of large particles,the variance of particle weight can be reduced,the number of effective particles can be increased,and the accuracy of AUV location and feature location estimation can be improved to some extent by retaining more information carried by particles.The experimental results based on trial data show that the proposed simulated annealing variance reduction FastSLAM method avoids particle degradation,maintains the diversity of particles,weakened the degeneracy and improves the accuracy and stability of AUV navigation and localization system.

Robust Iterated Sigma Point FastSLAM Algorithm for Mobile Robot Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Simultaneous localization and mapping （SLAM） is a key technology for mobile robots operating under unknown environment. While FastSLAM algorithm is a popular solution to the SLAM problem, it suffers from two major drawbacks： one is particle set degeneracy due to lack of observation information in proposal distribution design of the particle filter; the other is errors accumulation caused by linearization of the nonlinear robot motion model and the nonlinear environment observation model. For the purpose of overcoming the above problems, a new iterated sigma point FastSLAM （ISP-FastSLAM） algorithm is proposed. The main contribution of the algorithm lies in the utilization of iterated sigma point Kalman filter （ISPKF）, which minimizes statistical linearization error through Gaussian-Newton iteration, to design an optimal proposal distribution of the particle filter and to estimate the environment landmarks. On the basis of Rao-Blackwellized particle filter, the proposed ISP-FastSLAM algorithm is comprised by two main parts： in the first part, an iterated sigma point particle filter （ISPPF） to localize the robot is proposed, in which the proposal distribution is accurately estimated by the ISPKF; in the second part, a set of ISPKFs is used to estimate the environment landmarks. The simulation test of the proposed ISP-FastSLAM algorithm compared with FastSLAM2.0 algorithm and Unscented FastSLAM algorithm is carried out, and the performances of the three algorithms are compared. The simulation and comparing results show that the proposed ISP-FastSLAM outperforms other two algorithms both in accuracy and in robustness. The proposed algorithm provides reference for the optimization research of FastSLAM algorithm.

A survey: which features are required for dynamic visual simultaneous localization and mapping?

In recent years,simultaneous localization and mapping in dynamic environments(dynamic SLAM)has attracted significant attention from both academia and industry.Some pioneering work on this technique has expanded the potential of robotic applications.Compared to standard SLAM under the static world assumption,dynamic SLAM divides features into static and dynamic categories and leverages each type of feature properly.Therefore,dynamic SLAM can provide more robust localization for intelligent robots that operate in complex dynamic environments.Additionally,to meet the demands of some high-level tasks,dynamic SLAM can be integrated with multiple object tracking.This article presents a survey on dynamic SLAM from the perspective of feature choices.A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of different visual features is provided in this article.

Rapid State Augmentation for Compressed EKF-Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

A new method for speeding up the state augment operations involved in the compressed extended Kalman filter-based simultaneous localization and mapping （CEKF-SLAM） algorithm was proposed. State augment usually requires a fully-updated state eovariance so as to append the information of newly observed landmarks, thus computational volume increases quadratically with the number of landmarks in the whole map. It was proved that state augment can also be achieved by augmenting just one auxiliary coefficient ma- trix. This method can yield identical estimation results as those using EKF-SLAM algorithm, and computa- tional amount grows only linearly with number of increased landmarks in the local map. The efficiency of this quick state augment for CEKF-SLAM algorithm has been validated by a sophisticated simulation project.

Localization and mapping in urban area based on 3D point cloud of autonomous vehicles

In order to meet the application requirements of autonomous vehicles, this paper proposes a simultaneous localization and mapping （SLAM） algorithm, which uses a VoxelGrid filter to down sample the point cloud data, with the combination of iterative closest points （ICP） algorithm and Gaussian model for particles updating, the matching between the local map and the global map to quantify particles＇ importance weight. The crude estimation by using ICP algorithm can find the high probability area of autonomous vehicles＇ poses, which would decrease particle numbers, increase algorithm speed and restrain particles＇ impoverishment. The calculation of particles＇ importance weight based on matching of attribute between grid maps is simple and practicable. Experiments carried out with the autonomous vehicle platform validate the effectiveness of our approaches.

Standard Dual Quaternion Optimization and Its Applications in Hand-Eye Calibration and SLAM

Several common dual quaternion functions,such as the power function,the magnitude function,the 2-norm function,and the kth largest eigenvalue of a dual quaternion Hermitian matrix,are standard dual quaternion functions,i.e.,the standard parts of their function values depend upon only the standard parts of their dual quaternion variables.Furthermore,the sum,product,minimum,maximum,and composite functions of two standard dual functions,the logarithm and the exponential of standard unit dual quaternion functions,are still standard dual quaternion functions.On the other hand,the dual quaternion optimization problem,where objective and constraint function values are dual numbers but variables are dual quaternions,naturally arises from applications.We show that to solve an equality constrained dual quaternion optimization(EQDQO)problem,we only need to solve two quaternion optimization problems.If the involved dual quaternion functions are all standard,the optimization problem is called a standard dual quaternion optimization problem,and some better results hold.Then,we show that the dual quaternion optimization problems arising from the hand-eye calibration problem and the simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM)problem are equality constrained standard dual quaternion optimization problems.

Progress and Achievements of Multi-sensor Fusion Navigation in China during 2019—2023

Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)can provide all-weather,all-time,high-precision positioning,navigation and timing services,which plays an important role in national security,national economy,public life and other aspects.However,in environments with limited satellite signals such as urban canyons,tunnels,and indoor spaces,it is difficult to provide accurate and reliable positioning services only by satellite navigation.Multi-source sensor integrated navigation can effectively overcome the limitations of single-sensor navigation through the fusion of different types of sensor data such as Inertial Measurement Unit(IMU),vision sensor,and LiDAR,and provide more accurate,stable and robust navigation information in complex environments.We summarizes the research status of multi-source sensor integrated navigation technology,and focuses on the representative innovations and applications of integrated navigation and positioning technology by major domestic scientific research institutions in China during 2019—2023.

An RGB-D Camera Based Visual Positioning System for Assistive Navigation by a Robotic Navigation Aid

There are about 253 million people with visual impairment worldwide.Many of them use a white cane and/or a guide dog as the mobility tool for daily travel.Despite decades of efforts,electronic navigation aid that can replace white cane is still research in progress.In this paper,we propose an RGB-D camera based visual positioning system(VPS)for real-time localization of a robotic navigation aid(RNA)in an architectural floor plan for assistive navigation.The core of the system is the combination of a new 6-DOF depth-enhanced visual-inertial odometry(DVIO)method and a particle filter localization(PFL)method.DVIO estimates RNA’s pose by using the data from an RGB-D camera and an inertial measurement unit(IMU).It extracts the floor plane from the camera’s depth data and tightly couples the floor plane,the visual features(with and without depth data),and the IMU’s inertial data in a graph optimization framework to estimate the device’s 6-DOF pose.Due to the use of the floor plane and depth data from the RGB-D camera,DVIO has a better pose estimation accuracy than the conventional VIO method.To reduce the accumulated pose error of DVIO for navigation in a large indoor space,we developed the PFL method to locate RNA in the floor plan.PFL leverages geometric information of the architectural CAD drawing of an indoor space to further reduce the error of the DVIO-estimated pose.Based on VPS,an assistive navigation system is developed for the RNA prototype to assist a visually impaired person in navigating a large indoor space.Experimental results demonstrate that:1)DVIO method achieves better pose estimation accuracy than the state-of-the-art VIO method and performs real-time pose estimation(18 Hz pose update rate)on a UP Board computer;2)PFL reduces the DVIO-accrued pose error by 82.5%on average and allows for accurate wayfinding(endpoint position error≤45 cm)in large indoor spaces.

Dense Mapping From an Accurate Tracking SLAM

In recent years, reconstructing a sparse map from a simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM) system on a conventional CPU has undergone remarkable progress. However,obtaining a dense map from the system often requires a highperformance GPU to accelerate computation. This paper proposes a dense mapping approach which can remove outliers and obtain a clean 3D model using a CPU in real-time. The dense mapping approach processes keyframes and establishes data association by using multi-threading technology. The outliers are removed by changing detections of associated vertices between keyframes. The implicit surface data of inliers is represented by a truncated signed distance function and fused with an adaptive weight. A global hash table and a local hash table are used to store and retrieve surface data for data-reuse. Experiment results show that the proposed approach can precisely remove the outliers in scene and obtain a dense 3D map with a better visual effect in real-time.

Iterated Conditional Modes to Solve Simultaneous Localization and Mapping in Markov Random Fields Context

This paper models the complex simultaneous localization and mapping（SLAM） problem through a very flexible Markov random field and then solves it by using the iterated conditional modes algorithm. Markovian models allow to incorporate： any motion model; any observation model regardless of the type of sensor being chosen; prior information of the map through a map model; maps of diverse natures; sensor fusion weighted according to the accuracy. On the other hand, the iterated conditional modes algorithm is a probabilistic optimizer widely used for image processing which has not yet been used to solve the SLAM problem. This iterative solver has theoretical convergence regardless of the Markov random field chosen to model. Its initialization can be performed on-line and improved by parallel iterations whenever deemed appropriate. It can be used as a post-processing methodology if it is initialized with estimates obtained from another SLAM solver. The applied methodology can be easily implemented in other versions of the SLAM problem, such as the multi-robot version or the SLAM with dynamic environment. Simulations and real experiments show the flexibility and the excellent results of this proposal.

A novel algorithm for SLAM in dynamic environments using landscape theory of aggregation

To tackle the problem of simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM) in dynamic environments, a novel algorithm using landscape theory of aggregation is presented. By exploiting the coherent explanation how actors form alignments in a game provided by the landscape theory of aggregation, the algorithm is able to explicitly deal with the ever-changing relationship between the static objects and the moving objects without any prior models of the moving objects. The effectiveness of the method has been validated by experiments in two representative dynamic environments: the campus road and the urban road.

Novel robust simultaneous localization and mapping for long-term autonomous robots

A fundamental task for mobile robots is simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM).Moreover,long-term robustness is an important property for SLAM.When vehicles or robots steer fast or steer in certain scenarios,such as low-texture environments,long corridors,tunnels,or other duplicated structural environments,most SLAM systems might fail.In this paper,we propose a novel robust visual inertial light detection and ranging(Li Da R)navigation(VILN)SLAM system,including stereo visual-inertial Li Da R odometry and visual-Li Da R loop closure.The proposed VILN SLAM system can perform well with low drift after long-term experiments,even when the Li Da R or visual measurements are degraded occasionally in complex scenes.Extensive experimental results show that the robustness has been greatly improved in various scenarios compared to state-of-the-art SLAM systems.

Camera,LiDAR,and IMU Based Multi-Sensor Fusion SLAM:A Survey

In recent years,Simultaneous Localization And Mapping(SLAM)technology has prevailed in a wide range of applications,such as autonomous driving,intelligent robots,Augmented Reality(AR),and Virtual Reality(VR).Multi-sensor fusion using the most popular three types of sensors(e.g.,visual sensor,LiDAR sensor,and IMU)is becoming ubiquitous in SLAM,in part because of the complementary sensing capabilities and the inevitable shortages(e.g.,low precision and long-term drift)of the stand-alone sensor in challenging environments.In this article,we survey thoroughly the research efforts taken in this field and strive to provide a concise but complete review of the related work.Firstly,a brief introduction of the state estimator formation in SLAM is presented.Secondly,the state-of-the-art algorithms of different multi-sensor fusion algorithms are given.Then we analyze the deficiencies associated with the reviewed approaches and formulate some future research considerations.This paper can be considered as a brief guide to newcomers and a comprehensive reference for experienced researchers and engineers to explore new interesting orientations.

Analyzing the Impact of Scene Transitions on Indoor Camera Localization through Scene Change Detection in Real-Time

Real-time indoor camera localization is a significant problem in indoor robot navigation and surveillance systems.The scene can change during the image sequence and plays a vital role in the localization performance of robotic applications in terms of accuracy and speed.This research proposed a real-time indoor camera localization system based on a recurrent neural network that detects scene change during the image sequence.An annotated image dataset trains the proposed system and predicts the camera pose in real-time.The system mainly improved the localization performance of indoor cameras by more accurately predicting the camera pose.It also recognizes the scene changes during the sequence and evaluates the effects of these changes.This system achieved high accuracy and real-time performance.The scene change detection process was performed using visual rhythm and the proposed recurrent deep architecture,which performed camera pose prediction and scene change impact evaluation.Overall,this study proposed a novel real-time localization system for indoor cameras that detects scene changes and shows how they affect localization performance.

Global Fine Registration of Point Cloud in LiDAR SLAM Based on Pose Graph

The laser scanning system based on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping(SLAM)technology has the advantages of low cost,high precision and high efficiency.It has drawn wide attention in the field of surveying and mapping in recent years.Although real-time data acquisition can be achieved using SLAM technology,the precision of the data can’t be ensured,and inconsistency exists in the acquired point cloud.In order to improve the precision of the point cloud obtained by this kind of system,this paper presents a hierarchical point cloud global optimization algorithm.Firstly,the“point-to-plane”iterative closest point(ICP)algorithm is used to match the overlapping point clouds to form constraints between the trajectories of the scanning system.Then a pose graph is constructed to optimize the trajectory.Finally,the optimized trajectory is used to refine the point cloud.The computational efficiency is improved by decomposing the optimization process into two levels,i.e.local level and global level.The experimental results show that the RMSE of the distance between the corresponding points in overlapping areas is reduced by about 50%after optimization,and the internal inconsistency is effectively eliminated.

A Sensor-based SLAM Algorithm for Camera Tracking in Virtual Studio

This paper addresses a sensor-based simultaneous localization and mapping （SLAM） algorithm for camera tracking in a virtual studio environment. The traditional camera tracking methods in virtual studios are vision-based or sensor-based. However, the chroma keying process in virtual studios requires color cues, such as blue background, to segment foreground objects to be inserted into images and videos. Chroma keying limits the application of vision-based tracking methods in virtual studios since the background cannot provide enough feature information. Furthermore, the conventional sensor-based tracking approaches suffer from the jitter, drift or expensive computation due to the characteristics of individual sensor system. Therefore, the SLAM techniques from the mobile robot area are first investigated and adapted to the camera tracking area. Then, a sensor-based SLAM extension algorithm for two dimensional （2D） camera tracking in virtual studio is described. Also, a technique called map adjustment is proposed to increase the accuracy＇ and efficiency of the algorithm. The feasibility and robustness of the algorithm is shown by experiments. The simulation results demonstrate that the sensor-based SLAM algorithm can satisfy the fundamental 2D camera tracking requirement in virtual studio environment.

Visual-feature-assisted mobile robot localization in a long corridor environment

Localization plays a vital role in the mobile robot navigation system and is a fundamental capability for autonomous movement.In an indoor environment,the current mainstream localization scheme uses two-dimensional(2D)laser light detection and ranging(LiDAR)to build an occupancy grid map with simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM)technology;it then locates the robot based on the known grid map.However,such solutions work effectively only in those areas with salient geometrical features.For areas with repeated,symmetrical,or similar structures,such as a long corridor,the conventional particle filtering method will fail.To solve this crucial problem,this paper presents a novel coarse-to-fine paradigm that uses visual features to assist mobile robot localization in a long corridor.First,the mobile robot is remote-controlled to move from the starting position to the end along a middle line.In the moving process,a grid map is built using the laser-based SLAM method.At the same time,a visual map consisting of special images which are keyframes is created according to a keyframe selection strategy.The keyframes are associated with the robot’s poses through timestamps.Second,a moving strategy is proposed,based on the extracted range features of the laser scans,to decide on an initial rough position.This is vital for the mobile robot because it gives instructions on where the robot needs to move to adjust its pose.Third,the mobile robot captures images in a proper perspective according to the moving strategy and matches them with the image map to achieve a coarse localization.Finally,an improved particle filtering method is presented to achieve fine localization.Experimental results show that our method is effective and robust for global localization.The localization success rate reaches 98.8%while the average moving distance is only 0.31 m.In addition,the method works well when the mobile robot is kidnapped to another position in the corridor.

Flow-based SLAM:From geometry computation to learning

Simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM)has attracted considerable research interest from the robotics and computer-vision communities for>30 years.With steady and progressive efforts being made,modern SLAM systems allow robust and online applications in real-world scenes.We examined the evolution of this powerful perception tool in detail and noticed that the insights concerning incremental computation and temporal guidance are persistently retained.Herein,we denote this temporal continuity as a flow basis and present for the first time a survey that specifically focuses on the flow-based nature,ranging from geometric computation to the emerging learning techniques.We start by reviewing two essential stages for geometric computation,presenting the de facto standard pipeline and problem formulation,along with the utilization of temporal cues.The recently emerging techniques are then summarized,covering a wide range of areas,such as learning techniques,sensor fusion,and continuous time trajectory modeling.This survey aims at arousing public attention on how robust SLAM systems benefit from a continuously observing nature,as well as the topics worthy of further investigation for better utilizing the temporal cues.