Programming an E-Puck Robot to Create Maps of Virtual and Physical Environments

This project is a first step towards research on implementing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques in robots. The paper provides theoretical background for SLAM and occupancy grids, which are used in the project to create maps. The paper also describes the software, Python and Player/Stage, and the hardware, the E-Puck robot, used in the project. This project successfully programmed an E-Puck robot to map an unknown virtual and physical environment. The virtual environment has perfect localization conditions, while the physical environment has error in its localization. A comparison of these maps shows that the map of the virtual environment is highly accurate, while the map of the physical environment is less accurate due to odometery errors.