PolyMap: A 2D Polygon-Based Map Format for Multi-robot Autonomous Indoor Localization and Mapping

Autonomous exploration is an important tasks in many robotic fields such as disaster response scenarios. In time critical situations, the use of multiple robots can reduce the time to create a complete map of the environment. However among the most popular map formats in use today, none are ideal for the multi-robot autonomous indoor localization. In terms of memory usage, visualization, and usability in navigation and exploration tasks, all formats have some strengths and weaknesses. In this paper we introduce PolyMap, a map format that is based on simple polygons. Since the polygons are based on line segments, this is a special case of vector-based map formats. This format provides advantages in terms of memory footprint over occupancy grids, while not falling behind in visualization. Its sparse nature is also an advantage for navigation tasks, in particular when the map needs to be shared over a wireless network connection. Additionally the explicit modeling of frontiers helps with autonomous exploration.