Sketched Floor plans versus SLAM maps: A Comparison

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple algorithm to align hand-drawn floor plans with SLAM maps, enabling their use in robotic applications, and compares their effectiveness in spatial tasks.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel method for quickly aligning floor plans with SLAM maps, facilitating their use in robotics and spatial understanding.

Findings

No significant performance difference between floor plans and SLAM maps in spatial tasks.

Floor plans are more aligned with how humans naturally conceptualize spaces.

The algorithm enables easy integration of conceptual maps into robotic systems.

Abstract

Maps --- specifically floor plans --- are useful for a variety of tasks from arranging furniture to designating conceptual or functional spaces (e.g., kitchen, walkway). We present a simple algorithm for quickly laying a floor plan (or other conceptual map) onto a SLAM map, creating a one-to-one mapping between them. Our goal was to enable using a floor plan (or other hand-drawn or annotated map) in robotic applications instead of the typical SLAM map created by the robot. We look at two use cases, specifying "no-go" regions within a room and locating objects within a scanned room. Although a user study showed no statistical difference between the two types of maps in terms of performance on this spatial memory task, we argue that floor plans are closer to the mental maps people would naturally draw to characterize spaces.