Independent Markov Chain Occupancy Grid Maps for Representation of Dynamic Environments

In this paper we propose a new grid based approach to model a dynamic environment. Each grid cell is assumed to be an independent Markov chain (iMac) with two states. The state transition parameters are learned online and modeled as two Poisson processes. As a result, our representation not only encodes the expected occupancy of the cell, but also models the expected dynamics within the cell. The paper also presents a strategy based on recency weighting to learn the model parameters from observations that is able to deal with non-stationary cell dynamics. Moreover, an interpretation of the model parameters with discussion about the convergence rates of the cells is presented. The proposed model is experimentally validated using offline data recorded with a Laser Guided Vehicle (LGV) system running in production use.