Environment map building and localization for robot navigation based on image sequences

SLAM is one of the most important components in robot navigation. A SLAM algorithm based on image sequences captured by a single digital camera is proposed in this paper. By this algorithm, SIFT feature points are selected and matched between image pairs sequentially. After three images have been captured, the environment’s 3D map and the camera’s positions are initialized based on matched feature points and intrinsic parameters of the camera. A robust method is applied to estimate the position and orientation of the camera in the forthcoming images. Finally, a robust adaptive bundle adjustment algorithm is adopted to optimize the environment’s 3D map and the camera’s positions simultaneously. Results of quantitative and qualitative experiments show that our algorithm can reconstruct the environment and localize the camera accurately and efficiently.