Three-dimensional mapping of an environment

A system for constructing a three-dimensional map of an environment, comprising:

• a laser scanner movable about an environment and configured to collect scan line data from a plurality of scans of the environment, wherein each of the scans comprises one or more scan lines, each returning a data value indicating a distance between the laser scanner and a point on a surface of a structure in the environment;
• at least one other sensor movable about the environment with the laser scanner and configured collect additional sensor data corresponding to the environment;
• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing programming instructions configured to cause the processor to:
• obtain the scan line data from the laser scanner,
• extract one or more feature points from the scan line data,
• develop a laser scanner-based odometry from the feature points by:
• for each instance of the scans of the laser scanner, identifying a window that comprises scan lines from one or more scans occurring immediately before or after the instance of the scan,
• identifying a plurality of matching points from the one or more feature points extracted from the scan line data corresponding to one or more scans occurring immediately before or after the instance of the scan,
• adjusting the number of matching points based on a distance of the laser scanner to each of the plurality of matching points, and
• estimating a change in position of the laser scanner based on the adjusted number of matching points,
• obtain the additional sensor data from the at least one other sensor, and develop an additional odometry of the environment from the additional sensor data,
• perform sensor fusion to supplement the laser scanner-based odometry with the additional odometry to develop a three-dimensional map of the environment, and
• save the three-dimensional map to a memory device.

A system for constructing a three-dimensional map of an environment, comprising:

• a robotic device movable about an environment, wherein the robotic device comprises:
• a laser scanner installed thereon and configured to collect scan line data from a plurality of scans of the environment, wherein each of the scans comprises one or more scan lines, each returning a data value indicating a distance between the laser scanner and a point on a surface of a structure in the environment, and
• a camera installed thereon with the laser scanner and configured to collect a sequence of images corresponding to the environment;
• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing programming instructions configured to cause the processor to:
• obtain the scan line data from the laser scanner,
• extract one or more feature points from the scan line data,
• develop a laser scanner-based odometry from the feature points by:
• for each instance of the scans of the laser scanner, identifying a window that comprises scan lines from one or more scans occurring immediately before or after the instance of the scan,
• identifying a plurality of matching points from the one or more feature points extracted from the scan line data corresponding to one or more scans occurring immediately before or after the instance of the scan,
• adjusting the number of matching points based on a distance of the laser scanner to each of the plurality of matching points, and
• estimating a change in position of the laser scanner based on the adjusted number of matching points,
• obtain at least a portion of the sequence of images from the camera, and develop a camera odometry of the environment from the portion of the sequence of images,
• perform sensor fusion to supplement the laser scanner-based odometry with the camera odometry to develop a three-dimensional map of the environment, and
• save the three-dimensional map to a memory device.