Comparison of indoor robot localization techniques in the absence of GPS

When available, GPS is the quick and easy solution to localizing a robot. However, because it is often not available (e.g. indoors) or not reliable enough, other techniques, using laser range finders or cameras have been developed that offer better performance. For 2D localization, lLaser range finders are far more precise and easier to work with than cameras. We report here on the performance of several implementations of the main class of localization algorithms that use a laser, Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) on the RAWSEEDS benchmark. SRI International's SLAM system has an RMS error in XY of 0.32m (0.22%). This is the best reported performance on this benchmark.