By a SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) method, we get a map of an environment for autonomous navigation of a robot. In this case, we want to know how accurate the map is. Or we want to know which map is more accurate when different maps can be obtained by different SLAM methods. So, several methods for map comparison have been studied, but they have their own drawbacks. In this paper, we propose a new method which compares the accuracy or error of maps relatively and quantitatively. This method sets many corresponding points on both reference map and SLAM map, and computes the translational and rotational values of all corresponding points using least-squares solution. Analyzing the standard deviations of all translational and rotational values, we can know the error of two maps. This method can consider both local and global errors while other methods can deal with one of them, and this is verified by a series of simulations and real world experiments.

Recognition of traffic signs helps an unmanned ground vehicle to decide its behavior correctly, and it can reduce traffic accidents. However, low cost traffic sign recognition using a vision sensor is very difficult because the signs are exposed to various illumination conditions. This paper proposes a new approach to solve this problem using an illuminometer which detects the intensity of illumination. Using the intensity of illumination, the recognizer adjusts the parameters for image processing. Therefore, we can reduce the loss of information such as the shape and color of traffic signs. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to improve the performance of traffic sign recognition in various weather and lighting conditions.

Low-cost sensors have been widely used for mobile robot navigation in recent years. However, navigation performance based on low-cost sensors is not good enough to be practically used. Among many navigation techniques, building of an accurate map is a fundamental task for service robots, and mapping with low-cost IR sensors was investigated in this research. The robot’s orientation uncertainty was considered for mapping by modifying the Bayesian update formula. Then, the data association scheme was investigated to improve the quality of a built map when the robot’s pose uncertainty was large. Six low-cost IR sensors mounted on the robot could not give rich data enough to align the range data by the scan matching method, so a new sample-based method was proposed for data association. The real experiments indicated that the mapping method proposed in this research was able to generate a useful map for navigation.