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SIMULTANEOUS LOCALIZATION, MAPPING AND OBJECT TRACKING IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT USING MULTIPLE 2D LASER SCANNERS
By
NICHOLAS MCKINLEY JOHNSON
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2010
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2010 Nicholas McKinley Johnson
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To my family
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to thank my family for their love and support during my time at
the University of Florida. They have always believed in my potential and have never
placed any undue expectations on me. I thank them for allowing me the freedom to
pursue my dreams.
I would also like to thank my advisors Dr. A. Antonio Arroyo and Dr. Carl Crane for
their guidance and support over the years. It was only through their help that I was able
to participate in the 2007 Urban Challenge and work on a myriad of interesting projects
during my time at the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics. In addition, I would
like to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Douglas Dankel, Dr. Herman
Lam, and Dr. Eric Schwartz for their valuable input and guidance over the past few
years. This research was made possible in part through the support of the Air Force
Research Lab at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida so I would like to thank
all the staff that I have had the opportunity to work with out there.
I would like to heartily thank all of my co-workers, and especially my friends, at
CIMAR who I have worked with closely while at UF. Although, there were many
challenges and many long days and late nights, their support and friendship made each
day an enjoyable experience and made it possible to make it through to the end.
Finally, I would like to thank God for making all things possible.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 17
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 19
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 21
Background ............................................................................................................. 21Focus ...................................................................................................................... 25Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 27Motivation ............................................................................................................... 27
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................................................... 33
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping ................................................................ 33Grid-Based Approaches ................................................................................... 34Direct Methods ................................................................................................. 35Feature-Based Approaches .............................................................................. 37Hierarchical Object Based Approach ................................................................ 40
Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects ............................................................. 41Object Representation ...................................................................................... 42Object Association and Tracking ...................................................................... 44Classification .................................................................................................... 46
Simultaneous Localization, Mapping and Moving Object Tracking ......................... 47Grid-Based Approaches ................................................................................... 48Hierarchical Object Representation Approach .................................................. 51
IMPLEMENTED APPROACH ....................................................................................... 57
Simultaneous Localization, Mapping, and Moving Object Tracking ........................ 57Object Detection and Representation ............................................................... 58
Clustering ................................................................................................... 59Feature extraction ...................................................................................... 60
Object Classification ......................................................................................... 61Free space polygon generation .................................................................. 62Moving object detection and representation .............................................. 62
Object Tracking ................................................................................................ 63Enclosure generation ................................................................................. 64Object matching and resolution .................................................................. 64Missing object detection ............................................................................. 67
Position Estimation ........................................................................................... 68
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World Model Knowledge Store ............................................................................... 71Challenges ....................................................................................................... 71Messaging ........................................................................................................ 73
Message object description ........................................................................ 74Create Knowledge Store Objects message ............................................... 75Report Knowledge Store Objects Creation message ................................. 75Modify Knowledge Store Objects message................................................ 76Report Knowledge Store Objects Modify message .................................... 76Query Knowledge Store Objects message ................................................ 77Report Knowledge Store Objects message ............................................... 77
Updated SLAM+DATMO Object Representation ............................................. 78Laser Range Finder Fusion .................................................................................... 79
TESTING METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 96
Test Platform .......................................................................................................... 96Hardware .......................................................................................................... 96Software ........................................................................................................... 98
Test Plan ................................................................................................................. 98Single LADAR Testing ...................................................................................... 99
Static object detection and tracking ........................................................... 99Moving object detection and tracking ......................................................... 99Position estimation ................................................................................... 100World Model Knowledge Store access without position estimation .......... 101World Model Knowledge Store access with position estimation ............... 101
Multiple LADAR Testing ................................................................................. 102Metrics .................................................................................................................. 102
RESULTS .................................................................................................................... 105
Single LADAR Testing .......................................................................................... 105Static Object Detection and Tracking ............................................................. 105Moving Object Detection and Tracking ........................................................... 109Position Estimation ......................................................................................... 110World Model Knowledge Store without Position Estimation ........................... 112World Model Knowledge Store with Position Estimation ................................ 113
Multiple LADAR Testing ........................................................................................ 114Static Object Detection and Tracking ............................................................. 115Moving Object Detection and Tracking ........................................................... 116Position Estimation ......................................................................................... 116World Model Knowledge Store without Position Estimation ........
