Autonomously generating a 3D map of unknown environment by using mobile robots equipped with LRF

This paper proposes an exploration method for an automated 3D map generation of an unknown environment by using a group of robots equipped with LRF (laser range finder). The robots are composed of a parent robot measuring its environmental structure and two child robots being used as landmarks for localization of the parent robot. The method decides positions of the robots to generate the accurate map. We conducted experiment of the map generation of a hall whose size is 70[m] × 35[m] × 8[m]. The positional error in the map was less than 10[cm].