Local metrical and global topological maps in the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy

Benjamin Kuipers, Joseph Modayil, Patrick Beeson, Matt MacMahon, and Francesco Savelli. Local metrical and global topological maps in the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 4845–4851, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 2004.

Abstract

Topological and metrical methods for representing spatial knowledge have complementary strengths. We present a hybrid extension to the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy that combines their strengths and avoids their weaknesses. Metrical SLAM methods are used to build local maps of small-scale space within the sensory horizon of the agent, while topological methods are used to represent the structure of large-scale space. We describe how a local perceptual map is analyzed to identify a local topology description and is abstracted to a topological place. The map-building method creates a set of topological map hypotheses that are consistent with travel experience. The set of maps is guaranteed under reasonable assumptions to include the correct map. We demonstrate the method on a real environment with multiple nested large-scale loops.

Additional Information

Talk slides

BibTeX

@InProceedings{Kuipers-icra-04,
  author =	 {Benjamin Kuipers and Joseph Modayil and Patrick
                  Beeson and Matt MacMahon and Francesco Savelli},
  title =	 {Local metrical and global topological maps in the
                  {Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy}},
  booktitle =	 {Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on
                  Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year =	 2004,
  address =	 {New Orleans, Louisiana},
  month =	 {April},
  pages =	 {4845--4851},
  abstract =	 {Topological and metrical methods for representing
                  spatial knowledge have complementary strengths. We
                  present a hybrid extension to the Spatial Semantic
                  Hierarchy that combines their strengths and avoids
                  their weaknesses. Metrical SLAM methods are used to
                  build local maps of small-scale space within the
                  sensory horizon of the agent, while topological
                  methods are used to represent the structure of
                  large-scale space. We describe how a local
                  perceptual map is analyzed to identify a local
                  topology description and is abstracted to a
                  topological place. The map-building method creates a
                  set of topological map hypotheses that are
                  consistent with travel experience. The set of maps
                  is guaranteed under reasonable assumptions to
                  include the correct map. We demonstrate the method
                  on a real environment with multiple nested
                  large-scale loops.},
  bib2html_pubtype ={Refereed Conference},
  bib2html_rescat ={Topological/Hybrid Map-Building},
  bib2html_extra_info ={<a
                  href="http://personal.traclabs.com/~pbeeson/talks/Kuipers-icra-04_talk.pdf">
                  Talk slides</a>},
}

Download:

[1.4MB pdf]