Dynamic ICSP graph optimization approach for car-like robot localization in outdoor environments

Abstract

Localization has been regarded as one of the most fundamental problems to enable a mobile robot with autonomous capabilities. Probabilistic techniques such as Kalman or Particle filtering have long been used to solve robotic localization and mapping problem. Despite their good performance in practical applications, they could suffer inconsistency problems. This paper presents an Interval Constraint Satisfaction Problem (ICSP) graph based methodology for consistent car-like robot localization in outdoor environments. The localization problem is cast into a two-stage framework: visual teach and repeat. During a teaching phase, the interval map is built when a robot navigates around the environment with GPS-support. The map is then used for real-time ego-localization as the robot repeats the path autonomously. By dynamically solving the ICSP graph via Interval Constraint Propagation (ICP) techniques, a consistent and improved localization result is obtained. Both numerical simulation results and real data set experiments are presented, showing the soundness of the proposed method in achieving consistent localization.