Autonomous Robot Navigation and Localization on 3D Mesh Surfaces in ROS

Abstract

We present two open-source ROS software stacks that in combination enable a very powerful real-time localization and navigation on an arbitrary 3D surface. Using ray tracing, the robot is localized in real-time on the 3D mesh in 6DoF. Additionally, the Mesh Navigation Stack and Continuous Vector Field Planner (CVP) can be used to compute a shortest path across the surface. CVP is similar to Dijkstra and has the same runtime, but plans over the surface rather than along edges! It calculates a consistent vector field, which is a great advantage for executing the path.

Date
Location
New Orleans, LA, USA