Single camera vision-only SLAM on a suburban road network

Abstract

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is one of the major challenges in mobile robotics. Probabilistic techniques using high-end range finding devices are well established in the field, but work has investigated vision-only approaches. This paper presents a method for generating approximate rotational and translation velocity information from a single vehicle-mounted consumer camera, without the computationally expensive process of tracking landmarks. The method is tested by employing it to provide the odometric and visual information for the RatSLAM system while mapping a complex suburban road network. RatSLAM generates a coherent map of the environment during an 18 km long trip through suburban traffic at speeds of up to 60 km/hr. This result demonstrates the potential of ground-based vision-only SLAM using low cost sensing and computational hardware.