Can a Robot Hear the Shape and Dimensions of a Room?

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robot-based method for estimating room geometry using acoustic signals, employing a path planning strategy to move around and collect data, validated in a synthetic environment.

Contribution

It proposes a novel robot-driven approach with a path planning strategy for room geometry estimation from acoustic signals, overcoming deployment limitations of previous methods.

Findings

Effective room geometry estimation demonstrated in synthetic environments.

Path planning strategy ensures comprehensive room coverage for data collection.

Method shows promise for practical applications in unknown room environments.

Abstract

Knowing the geometry of a space is desirable for many applications, e.g. sound source localization, sound field reproduction or auralization. In circumstances where only acoustic signals can be obtained, estimating the geometry of a room is a challenging proposition. Existing methods have been proposed to reconstruct a room from the room impulse responses (RIRs). However, the sound source and microphones must be deployed in a feasible region of the room for it to work, which is impractical when the room is unknown. This work propose to employ a robot equipped with a sound source and four acoustic sensors, to follow a proposed path planning strategy to moves around the room to collect first image sources for room geometry estimation. The strategy can effectively drives the robot from a random initial location through the room so that the room geometry is guaranteed to be revealed. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is extensively validated in a synthetic environment, where the results obtained are highly promising.