Learning compact 3D models of indoor and outdoor environments with a mobile robot

This paper presents an algorithm for full 3D shape reconstruction of indoor and outdoor environments with mobile robots. Data is acquired with laser range finders installed on a mobile robot. Our approach combines efficient scan matching routines for robot pose estimation with an algorithm for approximating environments using flat surfaces. On top of that, our approach includes a mesh simplification technique to reduce the complexity of the resulting models. In extensive experiments, our method is shown to produce accurate models of indoor and outdoor environments that compare favorably to other methods. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.