6-DOF Localization for a Mobile Robot Using Outdoor 3D Point Clouds

This paper describes outdoor localization for a mobile robot using a laser scanner and three-dimensional (3D) point cloud data. A Mobile Mapping System (MMS) measures outdoor 3D point clouds easily and precisely. The full six-dimensional state of a mobile robot is estimated combining dead reckoning and 3D point cloud data. Two-dimensional (2D) position and orientation are extended to 3D using 3D point clouds assuming that the mobile robot remains in continuous contact with the road surface. Our approach applies a particle filter to correct position error in the laser measurement model in 3D point cloud space. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the accuracy of our proposal. As the result of the experiment, it was confirmed that a localization precision of 0.2 m (RMS) is possible using our proposal.