A sub-optimal algorithm for automatic map building

This paper examines the problem of automatically constructing a map of an unknown environment from a vehicle whose location is also unknown. The application of the Kalman filter to this problem is briefly described and the practical limitation of the filter in this context is discussed. A suboptimal algorithm, the relative filter, is introduced that avoids many of the computational and practical problems of the direct Kalman filter approach to this problem. The performance of the full Kalman filter and the relative filter is compared in a real map building scenario.