Annotated maps for autonomous land vehicles

Abstract

The use of annotated maps to manage the information needed by autonomous mobile robots is discussed. Annotations tie specific information to particular locations of objects in the map, such as the description of a landmark or the proper control strategy for crossing an intersection. Descriptor annotations are retrieved on demand. Triggers are automatically sent to a specified process when the robot reaches a given location. The most ambitious runs involved navigating through a suburban neighborhood, including image processing to follow roads, 3-D perception for landmark identification, and inertial navigation to turn at intersections. Annotated maps were built by first driving the robot by hand and recording the location of roads and the location and description of objects along the way. During mission planning, triggers were added to specify how and where to drive and what to look for. While executing the mission, the triggers specified when to use image processing, when to slow down and identify landmarks, how to negotiate intersections, and when to stop at the goal.