US-Germany Cooperative Research: Robot Localization and Robot Mapping Based on Shape Matching

Temple University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

0331786 Latecki This award supports the PI and a students from Temple University in a collaboration with Christian Freksa of the Department of Informatics at the University of Bremen, Germany. The technical focus of the project is to develop an elaborate and cognitively motivated geometric representation and reasoning formalism for robot localization and mapping. The problems of self-localization, which allows a robot to determine its position using its internal spatial representation, and robot mapping, which uses mobile robots to acquire spatial models of physical environments, are of high importance to the field of mobile robotics. Although current robot mapping and localization techniques are very sophisticated, they do not yield the desired performance. The German group is well known for its work in this field and the Freksa is head of center on Reasoning about Paths, Shapes, and Configurations funded by the German equivalent of NSF, the DFG. Furthermore, the collaboration brings together complementary expertise and equipment. The broader impacts of this collaboration are that it increases interactions between US researchers and those in Germany, it promotes collaborative opportunities and career development for US students, and it enhances the infrastructure for research and education by laying the groundwork for future international research and education opportunities.