Robotics
Barometric altimetry
ActivePublished
Key
innovation
A cheap, lighting-independent source of height-change information that complements SLAM in the vertical axis.
Category
Robotics
Abstraction level
Building block
Operation level
Robot controlSystem
How it works
A pressure sensor provides a continuous signal roughly proportional to altitude. After calibration and filtering (pressure also depends on weather), pressure changes are converted into height increments and used as an extra constraint in state estimation or a pose graph (e.g. a height prior, detecting floor transitions).
Problem solved
Height estimation from visual/LiDAR sensors alone can be unreliable (e.g. in a dark stairwell or an elevator cabin that moves together with the sensor), making it hard to correctly distinguish floors.