UWB/LiDAR Fusion For Cooperative Range-Only SLAM

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel cooperative SLAM approach that fuses UWB ranging and LiDAR data to achieve drift-free, real-time localization and mapping in unknown environments.

Contribution

It introduces a fusion method combining UWB peer-to-peer ranging with LiDAR scans for improved SLAM accuracy and robustness in unknown environments.

Findings

Fusion reduces localization drift significantly.

Enables real-time, drift-free SLAM using only ranging data.

Improves mapping accuracy through sensor data integration.

Abstract

We equip an ultra-wideband (UWB) node and a 2D LiDAR sensor a.k.a. 2D laser rangefinder on a mobile robot, and place UWB beacon nodes at unknown locations in an unknown environment. All UWB nodes can do ranging with each other thus forming a cooperative sensor network. We propose to fuse the peer-to-peer ranges measured between UWB nodes and laser scanning information, i.e. range measured between robot and nearby objects/obstacles, for simultaneous localization of the robot, all UWB beacons, and LiDAR mapping. The fusion is inspired by two facts: 1) LiDAR may improve UWB-only localization accuracy as it gives a more precise and comprehensive picture of the surrounding environment; 2) on the other hand, UWB ranging measurements may remove the error accumulated in the LiDAR-based SLAM algorithm. Our experiments demonstrate that UWB/LiDAR fusion enables drift-free SLAM in real-time based on ranging measurements only.