Autonomous 2D SLAM and 3D mapping of an environment using a single 2D LIDAR and ROS

Abstract

This paper describes an algorithm that performs an autonomous 3D reconstruction of an environment with a single 2D Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor, as well as its implementation on a mobile platform using the Robot Operating System (ROS). A ROS node was used to redirect the flow of data that can go to either the 2D Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) ROS node or to the 3D Octomap ROS node depending on the operation performed at that moment, with neither of the nodes going out of sync or crashing. The autonomous algorithm is implemented with the State Machines (SMACH) library and it uses ROS interfaces such as services and actions to create a 3D model of the robot's surroundings without prior information or human intervention.