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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Khalil, Marawan, Arzberger, Fabian, Nüchter, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10032
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author Khalil, Marawan
Arzberger, Fabian
Nüchter, Andreas
author_facet Khalil, Marawan
Arzberger, Fabian
Nüchter, Andreas
contents Spherical robots offer unique advantages for mapping applications in hazardous or confined environments, thanks to their protective shells and omnidirectional mobility. This work presents two complementary spherical mapping systems: a lightweight, non-actuated design and an actuated variant featuring internal pendulum-driven locomotion. Both systems are equipped with a Livox Mid-360 solid-state LiDAR sensor and run LiDAR-Inertial Odometry (LIO) algorithms on resource-constrained hardware. We assess the mapping accuracy of these systems by comparing the resulting 3D point-clouds from the LIO algorithms to a ground truth map. The results indicate that the performance of state-of-the-art LIO algorithms deteriorates due to the high dynamic movement introduced by the spherical locomotion, leading to globally inconsistent maps and sometimes unrecoverable drift.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_10032
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design and Evaluation of Two Spherical Systems for Mobile 3D Mapping
Khalil, Marawan
Arzberger, Fabian
Nüchter, Andreas
Robotics
Spherical robots offer unique advantages for mapping applications in hazardous or confined environments, thanks to their protective shells and omnidirectional mobility. This work presents two complementary spherical mapping systems: a lightweight, non-actuated design and an actuated variant featuring internal pendulum-driven locomotion. Both systems are equipped with a Livox Mid-360 solid-state LiDAR sensor and run LiDAR-Inertial Odometry (LIO) algorithms on resource-constrained hardware. We assess the mapping accuracy of these systems by comparing the resulting 3D point-clouds from the LIO algorithms to a ground truth map. The results indicate that the performance of state-of-the-art LIO algorithms deteriorates due to the high dynamic movement introduced by the spherical locomotion, leading to globally inconsistent maps and sometimes unrecoverable drift.
title Design and Evaluation of Two Spherical Systems for Mobile 3D Mapping
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10032