Robocentric map joining: Improving the consistency of EKF-SLAM

In this paper1 we study the Extended Kalman Filter approach to simultaneous localization and mapping (EKF-SLAM), describing its known properties and limitations, and concentrate on the filter consistency issue. We show that linearization of the inherent nonlinearities of both the vehicle motion and the sensor models frequently drives the solution of the EKF-SLAM out of consistency, specially in those situations where uncertainty surpasses a certain threshold. We propose a mapping algorithm, Robocentric Map Joining, which improves consistency of the EKF-SLAM algorithm by limiting the level of uncertainty in the continuous evolution of the stochastic map: (1) by building a sequence of independent local maps, and (2) by using a robot centered representation of each local map. Simulations and a large-scale indoor/outdoor experiment validate the proposed approach.