Topological map building for mobile robots based on GIS in urban environments

This paper presents an efficient method for building a topological map for robots in urban environments based on a geographic information system (GIS) such as satellite maps. In urban space, mobile robots need a special map, such as a topological map, to generate a path toward their goal. Unlike a car map, a topological map for mobile robot navigation should include semantic data, e.g., the width and type of road. This paper divides the GIS-based topological map building process into two steps. The first step is defining the topological map model to fit the mobile robot navigation in an urban environment. The second step is generating a topological map from existing GIS data to reduce the cost and improve the accuracy in building the map.