Local map-based exploration for mobile robots

For an accurate and efficient exploration, a local map-based exploration strategy is proposed. Segmented frontiers and relative transformations constitute a tree structure; using frontier segmentation and a local map management method, a robot can expand the mapped environment by moving along the tree structure. Although this local map-based exploration method uses only local maps and adjacent node information, mapping completion and efficiency can be greatly improved by merging and updating the frontier nodes. Simulation results demonstrate that the computational time does not increase during the exploration process, or when the resulting map becomes large. Additionally, the resulting path is effective in reducing the uncertainty in simultaneous localization and mapping or localization because of the loop-inducing characteristics from the child node to the parent node.