Robot task planning using semantic maps

Task planning for mobile robots usually relies solely on spatial information and on shallow domain knowledge, like labels attached to objects and places. Although spatial information is necessary for performing basic robot operations (navigation and localization), the use of deeper domain knowledge is pivotal to endow a robot with higher degrees of autonomy and intelligence. In this paper, we focus on semantic knowledge, and show how this type of knowledge can be profitably used for robot task planning. We start by defining a specific type of semantic maps, which integrate hierarchical spatial information and semantic knowledge. We then proceed to describe how these semantic maps can improve task planning in two ways: extending the capabilities of the planner by reasoning about semantic information, and improving the planning efficiency in large domains. We show several experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of our solutions in a domain involving robot navigation in a domestic environment.