This paper addresses the problem of building large-scale geometric maps of indoor environments with mobile robots. It poses the map building problem as a constrained, probabilistic maximum-likelihood estimation problem. It then devises a practical algorithm for generating the most likely map from data, along with the most likely path taken by the robot. Experimental results in cyclic environments of size up to 80×25 m illustrate the appropriateness of the approach.
Bayes rule - expectation maximization - mobile robots - navigation - localization - mapping - maximum likelihood estimation - positioning - probabilistic reasoning