Augmenting SLAM with Object Detection in a Service Robot Framework

In a service robot scenario, we are interested in a task of building maps of the environment that include automatically recognized objects. Most systems for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) build maps that are only used for localizing the robot. Such maps are typically based on grids or different types of features such as point and lines. Here, we augment the process with an object recognition system that detects objects in the environment and puts them in the map generated by the SLAM system. During task execution, the robot can use this information to reason about objects, places and their relationships. The metric map is also split into topological entities corresponding to rooms. In this way, the user can command the robot to retrieve an object from a particular room or get help from a robot when searching for a certain object