NanoSLAM: Enabling Fully Onboard SLAM for Tiny Robots

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Niculescu, Vlad, Polonelli, Tommaso, Magno, Michele, Benini, Luca
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Niculescu, Vlad
Polonelli, Tommaso
Magno, Michele
Benini, Luca
author_facet Niculescu, Vlad
Polonelli, Tommaso
Magno, Michele
Benini, Luca
contents Perceiving and mapping the surroundings are essential for enabling autonomous navigation in any robotic platform. The algorithm class that enables accurate mapping while correcting the odometry errors present in most robotics systems is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Today, fully onboard mapping is only achievable on robotic platforms that can host high-wattage processors, mainly due to the significant computational load and memory demands required for executing SLAM algorithms. For this reason, pocket-size hardware-constrained robots offload the execution of SLAM to external infrastructures. To address the challenge of enabling SLAM algorithms on resource-constrained processors, this paper proposes NanoSLAM, a lightweight and optimized end-to-end SLAM approach specifically designed to operate on centimeter-size robots at a power budget of only 87.9 mW. We demonstrate the mapping capabilities in real-world scenarios and deploy NanoSLAM on a nano-drone weighing 44 g and equipped with a novel commercial RISC-V low-power parallel processor called GAP9. The algorithm is designed to leverage the parallel capabilities of the RISC-V processing cores and enables mapping of a general environment with an accuracy of 4.5 cm and an end-to-end execution time of less than 250 ms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_12008
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle NanoSLAM: Enabling Fully Onboard SLAM for Tiny Robots
Niculescu, Vlad
Polonelli, Tommaso
Magno, Michele
Benini, Luca
Robotics
Perceiving and mapping the surroundings are essential for enabling autonomous navigation in any robotic platform. The algorithm class that enables accurate mapping while correcting the odometry errors present in most robotics systems is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Today, fully onboard mapping is only achievable on robotic platforms that can host high-wattage processors, mainly due to the significant computational load and memory demands required for executing SLAM algorithms. For this reason, pocket-size hardware-constrained robots offload the execution of SLAM to external infrastructures. To address the challenge of enabling SLAM algorithms on resource-constrained processors, this paper proposes NanoSLAM, a lightweight and optimized end-to-end SLAM approach specifically designed to operate on centimeter-size robots at a power budget of only 87.9 mW. We demonstrate the mapping capabilities in real-world scenarios and deploy NanoSLAM on a nano-drone weighing 44 g and equipped with a novel commercial RISC-V low-power parallel processor called GAP9. The algorithm is designed to leverage the parallel capabilities of the RISC-V processing cores and enables mapping of a general environment with an accuracy of 4.5 cm and an end-to-end execution time of less than 250 ms.
title NanoSLAM: Enabling Fully Onboard SLAM for Tiny Robots
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12008