Mapper3 Map Creation
From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support
Mapper3 and MobilePlanner convert laser scan logs to maps when the laser scan file is loaded. A laser scan file is a log of robot positions determined by possibly error-prone dead-reckoning, plus laser scan readings taken at each position. The file typically ends with the extension ".2d". When the scan file is loaded it does (offline, non-realtime) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) as it simulates the robot's path (using a Kalman filter on robot position during localization), and matching the laser scans ("scan-matching") to create a cohesive map, then does some clean-up on the data. (Some scan-matching and cleaning parameters can be modified in Mapper3 and MobilePlanner.) When this map is complete, it then also detects lines in the corrected laser data for use with MobileSim or SONARNL. Dr. Steffen Gutmann wrote this mapping system (originally as part of a program called ScanStudio), and has published papers describing some of the techniques (search Citeseer or Google scholar for Steffan Gutmann and ScanStudio, mapping, slam, localization, etc.).
For step-by-step instructions on creating a map for use with ARNL, SONARNL or MOGS, see:
