Obtaining the Robot Path Using Automatically Acquired Models

In order to monitor a robot's position, traditional techniques have used a model of the environment and a 2D view (image) of the scene from the current position of the robot. These techniques require either a fairly accurate 3D scene model or noisy 3D models with a reliable estimate of the model noise. Since it has not been possible either to automatically obtain accurate 3D models or to reliably estimate the error in noisy models, the 3D models have been constructed manually in previous work. In this paper we propose automating the model generation step by using a robust model acquisition algorithm. Apart from automatically obtaining fairly accurate 3D scene models, this model acquisition technique also provides the error in the model; this paper shows that the acquired 3D model along with the error estimate is reliable enough for a position estimation algorithm. 1 Introduction Traditionally, a moving robot monitors its position in an environment by using a 3D model of the scene and ..