Sensor Tracking and Mapping (Steam)

We present a portable system for tracking and mapping using a real time 3D sensor. In particular our current implementation is composed by a spinning laser sensor mounted on a portable backpack that sends positioning and acquisition data to an hand-held tablet. The system can be directly employed as a real time odometer system if no information on the environment are available or may take advantage of the known map. In the latter case an initial automatic off-line stage builds a 3D map of an unknown environment (either using high definition laser scanner acquisitions or our system alone). A second off-line stage extracts useful information from the generated map that are used in the subsequent on-line tracking stage. Finally, real-time pose tracking is performed using a robust ICP implementation that efficiently selects potentially descriptive points, removes outliers and that fuses a local odometer to allow the user to navigate through non-mapped areas. Our system provides accurate real time positioning information in large indoor environments and, optionally, overlays the current real time 3D acquisition on the original map assisting the user in accurately identifying regions of the environment that undergone changes.