Exploration with Global Consistency Using Real-Time Re-integration and Active Loop Closure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel exploration and mapping framework that manages drifted localization through real-time re-integration and active loop closure, enhancing global consistency in robotic mapping.

Contribution

It presents a real-time re-integration mapping approach with frame pruning and an exploration planning method for active loop closing, addressing localization drift in exploration tasks.

Findings

Effective correction of map distortion after loop closure

Improved mapping accuracy demonstrated in simulations and real-world experiments

Open-source implementation available for community use

Abstract

Despite recent progress of robotic exploration, most methods assume that drift-free localization is available, which is problematic in reality and causes severe distortion of the reconstructed map. In this work, we present a systematic exploration mapping and planning framework that deals with drifted localization, allowing efficient and globally consistent reconstruction. A real-time re-integration-based mapping approach along with a frame pruning mechanism is proposed, which rectifies map distortion effectively when drifted localization is corrected upon detecting loop-closure. Besides, an exploration planning method considering historical viewpoints is presented to enable active loop closing, which promotes a higher opportunity to correct localization errors and further improves the mapping quality. We evaluate both the mapping and planning methods as well as the entire system comprehensively in simulation and real-world experiments, showing their effectiveness in practice. The implementation of the proposed method will be made open-source for the benefit of the robotics community.