3D visual SLAM for an assistive robot in indoor environments using RGB-D cameras

With a growing global aging population, assistive robots are becoming increasingly important. This paper presents an integrated hardware and software architecture for assistive robots. This modular and reusable software framework incorporates capabilities of perception and navigation. The paper presents as well a system for three-dimensional (3D) vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) using a Red-Green-Blue and Depth (RGB-D) camera, and illustrates its application on an assistive robot. The ORB features and depth information are extracted for ego-motion estimation. Random Sample Consensus algorithm (RANSAC) is adopted for outlier removal, while the integration of RGB-D and iterated closest point (ICP) is used for alignment. Pose-graph optimization is completed by g2o. Finally, a 3D volumetric map is generated for further navigation.

[1]  Morgan Quigley,et al.  ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System , 2009, ICRA 2009.

[2]  Geoffrey A. Hollinger,et al.  HERB: a home exploring robotic butler , 2010, Auton. Robots.

[3]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  An evaluation of the RGB-D SLAM system , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[4]  Philip H. S. Torr,et al.  The Development and Comparison of Robust Methods for Estimating the Fundamental Matrix , 1997, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[5]  John J. Leonard,et al.  Robust real-time visual odometry for dense RGB-D mapping , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[6]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  A Tutorial on Graph-Based SLAM , 2010, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine.

[7]  Tom Drummond,et al.  Machine Learning for High-Speed Corner Detection , 2006, ECCV.

[8]  Paul Newman,et al.  Using laser range data for 3D SLAM in outdoor environments , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[9]  Advait Jain,et al.  EL-E: an assistive mobile manipulator that autonomously fetches objects from flat surfaces , 2010, Auton. Robots.

[10]  John J. Leonard,et al.  Kintinuous: Spatially Extended KinectFusion , 2012, AAAI 2012.

[11]  Gary R. Bradski,et al.  ORB: An efficient alternative to SIFT or SURF , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Computer Vision.

[12]  Luc Van Gool,et al.  SURF: Speeded Up Robust Features , 2006, ECCV.

[13]  Cyrill Stachniss,et al.  Hierarchical optimization on manifolds for online 2D and 3D mapping , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[14]  Robert C. Bolles,et al.  Random sample consensus: a paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography , 1981, CACM.

[15]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  FastSLAM: A Scalable Method for the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem in Robotics , 2007 .

[16]  Dejan Pangercic,et al.  Robotic roommates making pancakes , 2011, 2011 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots.

[17]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  G2o: A general framework for graph optimization , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[18]  Kurt Konolige,et al.  Projected texture stereo , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[19]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  3-D Mapping With an RGB-D Camera , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[20]  Lindsay Kleeman,et al.  Sonar Sensing , 2008, Springer Handbook of Robotics.

[21]  Kurt Konolige,et al.  Change Their Perception: RGB-D for 3-D Modeling and Recognition , 2013, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[22]  Friedrich Fraundorfer,et al.  Visual Odometry Part I: The First 30 Years and Fundamentals , 2022 .

[23]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Probabilistic Robotics (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents) , 2005 .

[24]  J. Kronenfeld,et al.  Maintaining functional independence in elderly adults: the roles of health status and financial resources in predicting home modifications and use of mobility equipment. , 2002, The Gerontologist.

[25]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  A benchmark for the evaluation of RGB-D SLAM systems , 2012, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[26]  Paul Newman,et al.  Outdoor SLAM using visual appearance and laser ranging , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[27]  Alexander Verl,et al.  Care-O-bot® 3 - creating a product vision for service robot applications by integrating design and technology , 2009, 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[28]  Kurt Konolige,et al.  The Office Marathon: Robust navigation in an indoor office environment , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[29]  F. Fraundorfer,et al.  Visual Odometry : Part II: Matching, Robustness, Optimization, and Applications , 2012, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[30]  Matthijs C. Dorst.  Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints , 2011 .

[31]  Joachim Hertzberg,et al.  6D SLAM—3D mapping outdoor environments , 2007, J. Field Robotics.

[32]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  FastSLAM: a factored solution to the simultaneous localization and mapping problem , 2002, AAAI/IAAI.

[33]  C. Landefeld.  Goals of care for hip fracture: promoting independence and reducing mortality. , 2011, Archives of internal medicine.

[34]  Friedrich Fraundorfer,et al.  Topological mapping, localization and navigation using image collections , 2007, 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[35]  Andrew W. Fitzgibbon,et al.  KinectFusion: Real-time dense surface mapping and tracking , 2011, 2011 10th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality.

[36]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Improved Techniques for Grid Mapping With Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filters , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[37]  Dieter Fox,et al.  RGB-D Mapping: Using Depth Cameras for Dense 3D Modeling of Indoor Environments , 2010, ISER.

[38]  C. Landefeld.  Goals of Care for Hip Fracture: Comment on “Hip Fracture and Increased Short-term but Not Long-term Mortality in Healthy Older Women” , 2011 .

[39]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  OctoMap: an efficient probabilistic 3D mapping framework based on octrees , 2013, Autonomous Robots.