Mapping and localization module in a mobile robot for insulating building crawl spaces
S. Cebollada, L. Payá, M. Juliá, M. Holloway, O. Reinoso
Automation in Construction  (March 2018)
Ed. Elsevier  ISSN:0926-5805  DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.11.007  - 87 (2018), pp. 248-262

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel robotic system that applies spray foam insulation in underfloor voids in order to

improve the energy efficiency of buildings. The work focuses on solving the mapping and localization problems

in such environments, since they are a key factor in the autonomy of the robot. Solving these tasks in underfloor

voids is especially challenging because the terrain is extremely uneven due to the presence of stones, bricks and

sand. Within these environments, the robot should be able to localize itself and apply the insulation foam to the

underside of the floor. The robot is equipped with a 2D laser sensor which permits building point clouds from

several positions of the underfloor environment. The localization process is solved by estimating the position of

the robot with respect to previously known positions. For this purpose, the alignment between point clouds is

calculated. This paper describes two algorithms to robustly obtain the alignment between two positions. The

proposed algorithms are tested with a set of point clouds captured with a laser scan in several environments

under real working conditions. The results show that the localization problem can be solved in such challenging

underfloor voids by using depth information.