A Robotic Indoor 3D Mapping System Using a 2D Laser Range Finder Mounted on a Rotating Four-Bar Linkage of a Mobile Platform

This paper describes our work in developing a 3D robotic mapping system composed by an experimental mobile platform equipped with a rotating laser range finder (LRF). For the purpose of obtaining more complete 3D scans of the environment, we design, construct and calibrate a crank‐rocker four‐bar linkage so that a LRF mounted on it could undergo repetitive rotational motion between two extreme positions, allowing both horizontal and vertical scans. To reduce the complexity of map representation suitable for optimization later, the local map from the LRF is a grid map represented by a distance‐transformed (DT) matrix. We compare the DT‐transformed maps and find the transformation matrix of a robot pose by a linear simplex‐based map optimization method restricted to a local region allows efficient alignment of maps in scan matching. Several indoor 2D and 3D mapping experiments are presented to demonstrate the consistency, efficiency and accuracy of the 3D mapping system for a mobile robot that is stationary or in motion.