Localization in Indoor Environments Using a Panoramic Laser Range Finder

The capability of self-localization is a prerequisite for a mobile robot to operate reasonably and to fulfill useful tasks in its environment. This work presents an approach that allows for self-localization in unmodified indoor environments even under the condition that no a-priori knowledge about the surroundings is available. The only sensor employed in this framework is a commercial, off-the-shelf laser range finder providing panoramic scans of its surroundings. The scans taken from different positions in the environment are superimposed using a DP-algorithm based scan matching procedure. A subsequent quantitative analysis performs self-localization of the mobile robot and supports the construction of a graph based map of the environment.

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