Transportable laser range sensing system for estimation of three dimensional motion distance and map making using in-building shape feature

This paper reports a transportable system for estimating a three dimensional motion distance and making a map in the building environment. This system takes three dimensional laser reflecting points information, and integrates them to make a map in the point cloud format after the estimation of sensing position using the three dimensional motion estimation. It estimates the self-location using the information of surfaces of walls, posts and ceilings as feature of the in-building environment. We have developed the prototype system using a three dimensional scanning unit with the roundly swinging mechanism, and an posture sensor unit. The experimental results have shown the effectiveness of the three dimensional estimation of motion distance method designed for this system.