Topological Mapping Inspired by Techniques in DNA Sequence Alignment

This paper introduces a method of building topological maps using sequences of images and the approximate string matching algorithm, which is commonly used in DNA sequence alignment applications. Contrary to many existing dense image based topological localisation techniques that operate in known maps, our method builds topological maps in unknown environments. And unlike traditional topological mapping methods that require the robot to explicitly recognise topological path junctions during exploration, our method requires no such explicit "junction detectors". It receives as input only a sequence of unlabeled images. The validity of the approach has been demonstrated in both indoor and outdoor environments. The largest outdoor map created measures 70 by 40 meters with 3 nested loops. The system has shown robustness towards large amounts of sensor aliasing and noise caused by errors in the path following behaviours