A novel filter for terrain mapping with laser rangefinders

• Published in: IEEE transactions on robotics Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 913 - 923
• Main Authors: Cang Ye, Borenstein, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.10.2004; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Content addressable storage; Continuity; Control theory. Systems; Elevation; Exact sciences and technology; Filtering; Filters; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Laser beams; Laser theory; Lasers; Least squares approximation; Missing data; Mobile robots; Navigation; Navigation systems; Optical elements, devices, and systems; Optics; Outdoor; Physics; Pixels; Preserves; Range finders, remote sensing devices, laser doppler velocimeters, sar, and lidar; Robotics; Robots; Terrain mapping; Vehicles; Filtering; Indoor installation; Moving robot; Laser range finder; Terrain mapping
• ISSN: 1552-3098; 1941-0468
• DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2004.829457

This paper introduces a novel filter for terrain mapping with a two-dimensional laser rangefinder. The filter, called the certainty-assisted spatial (CAS) filter, uses the physical constraints on motion continuity and spatial continuity to identify corrupted pixels and missing data in an elevation map. The filter removes the corrupted pixels, fills in the missing data, and leaves the uncorrupted pixels intact so as to preserve the details of a terrain map. Our extensive indoor and outdoor mapping experiments show the CAS filter's superior performance in erroneous data reduction and map detail preservation over conventional filters.