Making a local map of indoor environments by swiveling a camera and a sonar

This paper proposes a method of making a local map of indoor environments by swiveling a camera and a sonar. By swiveling a camera, an omni-directional panoramic image of high azimuth angle solution can be obtained. Meanwhile, regions of constant depth (RCD) corresponding to boundary edges and walls can be obtained by swiveling a sonar. Since many vertical lines exist in indoor environments, a local map of indoor environments can be acquired based upon position of a vertical line in space. From a 2D image, we cannot know its depth in space. At the same time, we cannot also distinguish the RCDs of boundary vertical lines from those of walls and others. However, since a boundary vertical line in space not only appears in images but also has a corresponding RCD, a local map can be acquired by fusing the metrical information from a sonar and the texture information from a camera. This paper proposes the method of fusing and gives the experimental results in a real indoor environment.