An Educational Software to Develop Robot Mapping and Localization Practices Using Visual Information

Abstract In this work, we present a software tool we have developed to be used in a computer vision and mobile robotics subject whose main objective consists in designing algorithms to control an autonomous robot. In applications that require the robot to move through an unknown environment, it is very important to build a model or map of this environment and to estimate the position of the robot in this map with enough accuracy. Map building and localization are two topics in constant innovation as new methods are continuously appearing, and some of these methods may be mathematically complex. Taking this fact into account, we have designed a platform that provides students all the necessary tools to understand the algorithms and that allows students to configure them to optimize the mapping and localization processes. We have added some databases, composed of several sets of indoor images, captured in real environments under realistic lighting conditions, so students will face the problems that would outcome in a real application. In this paper we present some details of implementation of the platform and how the students could use it.