This paper shows how effectively sonar data can be worked with approaches suggested for the indoor SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping). A sonar sensor occasionally provides wrong distance range due to the wide beam width and the specular reflection phenomenon. To overcome weak points enough to use for the SLAM, several approaches are proposed. First, distance ranges acquired from the same object have been stored by using the FPA (Footprint-association) model, which associates two sonar footprints into a hypothesized circle frame. Using the Least Squares method, a line feature is extracted from the data stored through the FPA model. By using raw sonar data together with the extracted features as observations, the visibility for landmarks can be improved, and the SLAM performance can be stabilized. Additionally, the SP (Symmetries and Perturbations) model, a representation of uncertain geometric information that combines the probability theory and the theory of symmetries, is applied in this paper. The proposed methods have been tested in a real home environment with a mobile robot.

A new species, Hatchiana n. sp., is confirmed by morphological and molecular data. The genus Hatchiana Fender, 1966 belonging to Podabrini LeConte, 1881 is distinguished by the shape of tarsal claws: all tarsal claws with blunt tooth in both sexes. The genus was recognized as a subgenus of Podabrus Westwood, 1838. Recently, however, Hatchiana was suggested as separated genus. The genus Hatchiana was known as 12 species in Palaeartic region including three species from Korea. In this study, we found Hatchiana n. sp. from several areas of Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. This new species is different from closely relative species, Hatchiana jirisanensis (Kang & Kim, 2000) by following morphological characters: size of compound eye, length of antennae, shape of pronotum, shape of scutellum, and shape of aedeagus. Also, we compare the DNA barcoding region (the former region of CO1 gene) between these two species as molecular characters. In result, Hatchiana n. sp. is distinct from Hatchiana jirisanensis Kang & Kim by discrepancy of three percents in CO1 sequence. Therefore, the Korean Hatchiana is confirmed as four species, adding Hatchiana n. sp.