Checkout my map: Version control for fleetwide visual localisation

Conference item

This paper is about underpinning long-term operations of fleets of vehicles using visual localisation. In particular it examines ways in which vehicles, considered as independent agents, can share, update and leverage each others’ visual experiences in a mutually beneficial way. We draw on our previous work in Experience-based Navigation (EBN) [1], in which a visual map supporting multiple representations of the same place is built, yielding real-time localisation capability for a solitary vehicle. We now consider how any number of such agents might operate in concert via data sharing policies that are germane to the shared task of lifelong localisation. We rapidly construct considerable maps by the conjoining of work distributed to asynchronous processes, and share expertise amongst the team by the selective dispensing of mission-specific map contents. We demonstrate and evaluate our system against 100km of data collected in North Oxford over a period of a month featuring diverse deviation in appearance due to atmospheric, lighting, and structural dynamics. We show that our framework is capable of creating maps in a fraction of the time required by single-agent EBN, with no significant loss in localisation robustness, and is able to furnish robots on realworld forays with maps which require much less storage.

Authors: Gadd, M; Newman, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Host title: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016)
• Journal: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016)
• Publication date: 2016-12-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-06-29
• DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2016.7759843