Building geometric world models with graph synthesis for sensor fusion in mobile robots1

摘要

This paper presents a description of the application of an attributed graph based approach to the synthesis of a geometric world model for use in navigation by a mobile robot. Our aim is to develop the theoretical aspects of graph synthesis for mobile robot world knowledge acquisition, and to demonstrate the validity of the approach with a simulation before implementation on the rover. A boundary representation of free space consisting of directed line segments organized into a directed attributed graph is used. The synthesis problem can be considered as having two parts: matching of a local model with a global model and the construction of a new global model. Structural and geometric local and global constraints are used to limit and direct the search for valid graph mappings. The constraints are the source of rules for matching primitives and graphs and are used in the process of constructing a new world model graph. An algorithm for graph synthesis is implemented in a software simulation for testing and experimentation.