Map as The Hidden Sensor: Fast Odometry-Based Global Localization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fast, odometry-based global localization method that uses map traversability as a hidden observation, enabling accurate, real-time robot localization even in challenging environments without initial state assumptions.

Contribution

The proposed method uniquely combines map traversability with odometry to achieve global, real-time localization without initial state assumptions, robust to ambiguities and capable of integration with other sensors.

Findings

Converges to ground truth quickly in various environments

Operates in real-time at up to 300 Hz using GPU

Robust to ambiguous observations and long-term odometry drift

Abstract

Accurate and robust global localization is essential to robotics applications. We propose a novel global localization method that employs the map traversability as a hidden observation. The resulting map-corrected odometry localization is able to provide an accurate belief tensor of the robot state. Our method can be used for blind robots in dark or highly reflective areas. In contrast to odometry drift in long-term, our method using only odometry and the map converges in longterm. Our method can also be integrated with other sensors to boost the localization performance. The algorithm does not have any initial state assumption and tracks all possible robot states at all times. Therefore, our method is global and is robust in the event of ambiguous observations. We parallel each step of our algorithm such that it can be performed in real-time (up to ~ 300 Hz) using GPU. We validate our algorithm in different publicly available floor-plans and show that it is able to converge to the ground truth fast while being robust to ambiguities.