Design of an indoor mapping system using three 2D laser scanners and 6 DOF SLAM

Abstract. We present the design for a new indoor mapping system based on three 2D laser scanners as well as a method to process the range measurements such that the pose of the system and the planes of floor, ceiling and walls can be estimated simultaneously. By the combined use of the measurements of all three scanners the pose of the system can be reconstructed in 3D without the need for an IMU. The six pose parameters are modelled as a continuous function over time such that scan line deformations caused by rapid scanner movements do not lead to biases in the estimated poses. The theoretical feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by analysing reconstruction results derived from simulated sensor data of two indoor models. Assuming a perfectly calibrated sensor and ranging noise of 3 cm, the results on data in 10x20 m corridor show that the plane orientation precision is better than 0.1 degree and that the standard deviation of plane-to-plane distances is below 1.5 cm after three loops in the corridor.