Robotics
Submap
ActivePublished
Key
innovation
Decomposing the map into locally consistent pieces joined by constraints, improving scalability and error isolation.
Category
Robotics
Abstraction level
Building block
Operation level
Robot control
How it works
The trajectory is split into segments, each forming a local submap with its own reference frame. Submaps are connected by edges (relative transforms), and optimization is done at two levels: within a submap and between submaps. This controls which associations (e.g. loop closures) are permitted.
Problem solved
A single global map in a large environment is computationally costly and prone to error propagation and incorrect associations between distant, similar-looking areas.
Key mechanisms
Trajectory segmentation into submaps
Local submap reference frame
Inter-submap relation graph
Two-level optimization