Advances in 3D data acquisition, mapping and localization in modern large-scale warehouses

Today modern manufacturing and logistic processes rely in most instances on manual forklifts. Being known for low efficiency, high energy consumption and listed among the most frequent causes of severe accidents in factories, the SICK AG coordinated EU funded research project PAN Robots aims to replace them in large scale with Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV). One major obstacle for operators with current AGVs are high installation cost for localization-supporting infrastructure, e.g. reflectors and manual measurement which needs to be performed by highly trained professionals in order to create an accurate navigation map for AGVs. Consequently, the goal of PAN-Robots is to reduce the installation time and costs dramatically by semi-automated plant exploration and localization based on natural landmarks. In this paper, we present our current mapping and localization results based on measurement data acquired at the site of our project partner Coca Cola Iberian Partners in Madrid, Spain.