KNOWROB-MAP - knowledge-linked semantic object maps

Abstract

Autonomous household robots are supposed to accomplish complex tasks like cleaning the dishes which involve both navigation and manipulation within the environment. For navigation, spatial information is mostly sufficient, but manipulation tasks raise the demand for deeper knowledge about objects, such as their types, their functions, or the way how they can be used. We present KNOWROB-MAP, a system for building environment models for robots by combining spatial information about objects in the environment with encyclopedic knowledge about the types and properties of objects, with common-sense knowledge describing what the objects can be used for, and with knowledge derived from observations of human activities by learning statistical relational models. In this paper, we describe the concept and implementation of KNOWROB-MAP and present several examples demonstrating the range of information the system can provide to autonomous robots.