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Main Authors: Maheshwari, Megha, Rabiee, Sadeigh, Yin, He, Labrie, Martin, Liu, Hang, Madhivanan, Rajasimman
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10416
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author Maheshwari, Megha
Rabiee, Sadeigh
Yin, He
Labrie, Martin
Liu, Hang
Madhivanan, Rajasimman
author_facet Maheshwari, Megha
Rabiee, Sadeigh
Yin, He
Labrie, Martin
Liu, Hang
Madhivanan, Rajasimman
contents Autonomous exploration for mapping unknown large scale environments is a fundamental challenge in robotics, with efficiency in time, stability against map corruption and computational resources being crucial. This paper presents a novel approach to indoor exploration that addresses these key issues in existing methods. We introduce a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)-aware region-based exploration strategy that partitions the environment into discrete regions, allowing the robot to incrementally explore and stabilize each region before moving to the next one. This approach significantly reduces redundant exploration and improves overall efficiency. As the device finishes exploring a region and stabilizes it, we also perform SLAM keyframe marginalization, a technique which reduces problem complexity by eliminating variables, while preserving their essential information. To improves robustness and further enhance efficiency, we develop a checkpoint system that enables the robot to resume exploration from the last stable region in case of failures, eliminating the need for complete re-exploration. Our method, tested in real homes, office and simulations, outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. The improvements demonstrate substantial enhancements in various real world environments, with significant reductions in keyframe usage (85%), submap usage (50% office, 32% home), pose graph optimization time (78-80%), and exploration duration (10-15%). This region-based strategy with keyframe marginalization offers an efficient solution for autonomous robotic mapping.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_10416
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Region Based SLAM-Aware Exploration: Efficient and Robust Autonomous Mapping Strategy That Can Scale
Maheshwari, Megha
Rabiee, Sadeigh
Yin, He
Labrie, Martin
Liu, Hang
Madhivanan, Rajasimman
Robotics
Autonomous exploration for mapping unknown large scale environments is a fundamental challenge in robotics, with efficiency in time, stability against map corruption and computational resources being crucial. This paper presents a novel approach to indoor exploration that addresses these key issues in existing methods. We introduce a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)-aware region-based exploration strategy that partitions the environment into discrete regions, allowing the robot to incrementally explore and stabilize each region before moving to the next one. This approach significantly reduces redundant exploration and improves overall efficiency. As the device finishes exploring a region and stabilizes it, we also perform SLAM keyframe marginalization, a technique which reduces problem complexity by eliminating variables, while preserving their essential information. To improves robustness and further enhance efficiency, we develop a checkpoint system that enables the robot to resume exploration from the last stable region in case of failures, eliminating the need for complete re-exploration. Our method, tested in real homes, office and simulations, outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. The improvements demonstrate substantial enhancements in various real world environments, with significant reductions in keyframe usage (85%), submap usage (50% office, 32% home), pose graph optimization time (78-80%), and exploration duration (10-15%). This region-based strategy with keyframe marginalization offers an efficient solution for autonomous robotic mapping.
title Region Based SLAM-Aware Exploration: Efficient and Robust Autonomous Mapping Strategy That Can Scale
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10416