CLOi-Mapper: Consistent, Lightweight, Robust, and Incremental Mapper With Embedded Systems for Commercial Robot Services

TL;DR

CLOi-Mapper introduces a lightweight, robust, and incremental SLAM framework tailored for commercial service robots with embedded systems, ensuring consistent performance across diverse hardware and environments.

Contribution

It presents a multi-stage hierarchical global pose estimation, a zero-constraint graph generation, and a memory-efficient long-term pose-graph optimization method for embedded systems.

Findings

Consistent global pose estimation in various environments

Effective long-term operation over 5 years

Suitable for low-end embedded hardware

Abstract

In commercial autonomous service robots with several form factors, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is an essential technology for providing proper services such as cleaning and guidance. Such robots require SLAM algorithms suitable for specific applications and environments. Hence, several SLAM frameworks have been proposed to address various requirements in the past decade. However, we have encountered challenges in implementing recent innovative frameworks when handling service robots with low-end processors and insufficient sensor data, such as low-resolution 2D LiDAR sensors. Specifically, regarding commercial robots, consistent performance in different hardware configurations and environments is more crucial than the performance dedicated to specific sensors or environments. Therefore, we propose a) a multi-stage %hierarchical approach for global pose estimation in embedded systems; b) a graph generation method with zero constraints for synchronized sensors; and c) a robust and memory-efficient method for long-term pose-graph optimization. As verified in in-home and large-scale indoor environments, the proposed method yields consistent global pose estimation for services in commercial fields. Furthermore, the proposed method exhibits potential commercial viability considering the consistent performance verified via mass production and long-term (> 5 years) operation.