The study of a map realization system: consideration of real-time map generation

Abstract

The basic problem in generating terrain maps for a mobile robot using three-dimensional information from a range-finder is considered. The representation of terrain maps is first investigated and a method called torus memory representation is introduced. The method of generating terrain maps is divided into visible and invisible regions, which are discussed separately. As to the visible region, a method based on sequential calculation of the mean and mean deviation is proposed. Regarding the invisible region, associative processing of the memorized data (abbreviated A-interpolation method) which we proposed for interpolating an invisible terrain is improved for bestowing higher versatility and real-time computation capability. Two experiments were carried out. One was to measure and reproduce visible region maps of a model terrain using the MARS range-finder mounted on the quadruped walking vehicle TITAN III. The other was a computer simulation to evaluate the proposed modified A-interpolation in comparison with the conventional method. The validity of the proposed methods is confirmed by these experiments.