Infrastructure mapping in well-structured environments using MAV

Abstract

In this paper, we present a design of a surveying system for warehouse environment using low cost quadcopter. The system focus on mapping the infrastructure of surveyed environment. As a unique and essential parts of the warehouse, pillars from storing shelves are chosen as landmark objects for representing the environment. The map are generated based on fusing the outputs of two different methods, point cloud of corner features from Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM) algorithm with estimated pillar position from a multi-stage image analysis method. Localization of the drone relies on PTAM algorithm. The system is implemented in Robot Operating System(ROS) and MATLAB, and has been successfully tested in real-world experiments. The result map after scaling has a metric error less than 20 cm.