A System for Volumetric Robotic Mapping of Abandoned Mines - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

A System for Volumetric Robotic Mapping of Abandoned Mines

Sebastian Thrun, Dirk Haehnel, David Ferguson, Michael Montemerlo, Rudolph Triebel, Wolfram Burgard, Christopher R. Baker, Zachary Omohundro, Scott Thayer, and William (Red) L. Whittaker
Conference Paper, Proceedings of (ICRA) International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 3, pp. 4270 - 4275, September, 2003

Abstract

This paper describes two robotic systems developed for acquiring accurate volumetric maps of underground mines. One system is based on a cart instrumented by laser range finders, pushed through a mine by people. Another is a remotely controlled mobile robot equipped with laser range finders. To build consistent maps of large mines with many cycles, we describe an algorithm for estimating global correspondences and aligning robot paths. This algorithm enables us to recover consistent maps several hundreds of meters in diameter, without odometric information. We report results obtained in two mines, a research mine in Bruceton, PA, and an abandoned coal mine in Burgettstown, PA.

BibTeX

@conference{Thrun-2003-8651,
author = {Sebastian Thrun and Dirk Haehnel and David Ferguson and Michael Montemerlo and Rudolph Triebel and Wolfram Burgard and Christopher R. Baker and Zachary Omohundro and Scott Thayer and William (Red) L. Whittaker},
title = {A System for Volumetric Robotic Mapping of Abandoned Mines},
booktitle = {Proceedings of (ICRA) International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
year = {2003},
month = {September},
volume = {3},
pages = {4270 - 4275},
}