Spatial Representations for Mapping

Contents

This Chapter provides an overview of the multitude of spatial representations suggested for application in robot mapping. The goal is to outline a representation technique well-suited to my research goal. To accomplish this, a scheme for analyzing spatial representations in robot mapping is introduced which aims at deriving characteristic properties for classes of representations. Three aspects of a map representation are individually examined:

• Feature representation

• Configuration representation

• Map organization

On the level of feature representation, I discuss the selection of environmental features that can be registered in the map. On this level, a link to shape representation is established. After reviewing the robotics literature, I turn to shape representations employed in visual object recognition and discuss parallels in order to obtain an integrated view. With respect to the mapping task, I elaborate on the potential merits or implied complications of individual approaches to feature representation.