6D SLAM – Mapping Outdoor Environments

6D SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) of mobile robots considers six dimensions for the robot pose, namely, the x, y and z coordinates and the roll, yaw and pitch angles. Robot motion and localization on natural surfaces, e.g., when driving with a mobile robot outdoor, must regard these degrees of freedom. This paper presents a robotic mapping method based on locally consistent 3D laser range scans. Scan matching, combined with a heuristic for closed loop detection and a global relaxation method, results in a highly precise mapping system for outdoor environments. The mobile robot Kurt3D was used to acquire data of the Schloss Birlinghoven campus. The resulting 3D map is compared with ground truth, given by an aerial photograph.