Floor Plan Based Active Global Localization and Navigation Aid for Persons with Blindness and Low Vision

📄 Abstract

Navigation of an agent, such as a person with blindness or low vision, in an unfamiliar environment poses substantial difficulties, even in scenarios where prior maps, like floor plans, are available. It becomes essential first to determine the agent’s pose in the environment. The task’s complexity increases when the agent also needs directions for exploring the environment to reduce uncertainty in the agent’s position. This problem of active global localization typically involves finding a transformation to match the agent’s sensor-generated map to the floor plan while providing a series of point-to- point directions for effective exploration. Current methods fall into two categories: learning-based, requiring extensive training for each environment, or non-learning-based, which generally depend on prior knowledge of the agent’s initial position, or the use of floor plan maps created with the same sensor modality as the agent. Addressing these limitations, we introduce a novel system for real-time, active global localization and navigation for persons with blindness and low vision. By generating semantically informed real-time goals, our approach enables local exploration and the creation of a 2D semantic point cloud for effective global localization. Moreover, it dynamically corrects for odometry drift using the architectural floor plan, independent of the agent’s global position and introduces a new method for real-time loop closure on reversal. Our approach’s effectiveness is validated through multiple real-world indoor experiments, also highlighting its adaptability and ease of extension to any mobile robot.

📊 Results

Mean and Median of the distance traveled (meters) for successful localization

Method	Candidate creation (Mean)	Candidate creation (Median)	Candidate confirmation (Mean)	Candidate confirmation (Median)
Left wall follower	14.79	11.03	17.36	14.05
Random coin toss	16.76	11.43	19.53	16.16
Our method	11.76	9.72	14.14	12.22

Mean and Meadian of the distance traveled (meters) from start to target

Method	Distance travelled (Mean)	Distance travelled (Median)
Min. possible distance	31.86	28
Left wall follower	51.58	50.84
Random coin toss	50.47	51.23
Our method	44.11	41.45

📑 Abalation Study

$R_1=L_4$, $R_2=L_{12}$, $R_3=L_{10}$, $R_4=L_{16}$, $R_5=L_{7}$ from the tables at the end.

Distance traveled for localization (in meters)

	$R_1$	$R_2$	$R_3$	$R_4$	$R_5$	Avg.
Our method	4.9	4.1	18.1	16.4	9.4	10.6
No Loop Closure	5.8	4.4	22	15.5	15.2	12.6
No Drift Correction	4.1	13.5	13.6	13.2	11.1	11.1
Path to Target	16	3.8	40.4	9.5	20.3	18

Distance traveled for overall navigation (in meters)

	$R_1$	$R_2$	$R_3$	$R_4$	$R_5$	Avg.
Our method	36.6	55.3	68.7	26.4	41.8	45.7
No Loop Closure	47.2	58.5	76.4	21.5	72.8	55.3
No Drift Correction	36	23.2	-	-	-	-
Path to Target	16.5	60.2	64.7	17.4	44.5	40.6

TEST BLOCK

Experiment paths ($10$ units $=$ $1$ m)

Figure 1: Environment 1 FloorMap

Index	Starting Point (X)	Starting Point (Y)	End Point (X)	End Point (Y)	Candidate Creation	Candidate Confirmation
$L_1$	95	390	10	270	9.13	9.40
$L_2$	250	77	10	270	39.58	39.69
$L_3$	250	250	10	270	17.73	24.27
$L_4$	50	70	10	270	4.98	6.25
$L_5$	26	390	10	270	0.21	0.78
$L_6$	115	320	50	70	9.72	12.97
$L_7$	210	450	50	70	4.11	6.71
$L_8$	195	70	50	70	6.68	7.16
$L_9$	277	70	50	70	1.25	1.69
$L_{10}$	127	392	50	70	18.12	26.08
$L_{11}$	275	70	115	330	8.83	10.63
$L_{12}$	10	385	115	330	16.42	22.53
$L_{13}$	248	248	115	330	21.59	24.22
$L_{14}$	70	70	115	330	17.44	20.26
$L_{15}$	210	450	115	330	8.28	11.43
$L_{16}$	50	390	250	200	9.43	11.36
$L_{17}$	230	70	250	200	20.82	22.84
$L_{18}$	250	250	250	200	18.85	22.43
$L_{19}$	118	70	250	200	15.43	17.91
$L_{20}$	10	240	250	200	24.90	32.53

Figure 2: Environment 2 FloorMap

Index	Starting Point (X)	Starting Point (Y)	End Point (X)	End Point (Y)	Candidate Creation	Candidate Confirmation
$L_{21}$	198	135	155	470	7.24	7.67
$L_{22}$	225	465	155	470	6.01	6.79
$L_{23}$	8	131	155	470	1.17	1.39
$L_{24}$	220	133	175	75	0.99	1.27
$L_{25}$	266	382	175	75	12.85	14.03
$L_{26}$	10	255	175	75	2.59	3.45
$L_{27}$	219	490	175	75	0.01	0.01
$L_{28}$	170	135	219	490	5.82	6.26
$L_{29}$	268	219	219	490	11.95	12.71
$L_{30}$	8	415	219	490	11.80	12.47

Figure 2: Environment 3 FloorMap

Index	Starting Point (X)	Starting Point (Y)	End Point (X)	End Point (Y)	Candidate Creation	Candidate Confirmation
$L_{31}$	25	300	195	150	20.61	24.32
$L_{32}$	70	225	195	150	0.24	0.77
$L_{33}$	275	175	195	150	12.49	22.47
$L_{34}$	305	120	500	125	25.54	32.46
$L_{35}$	655	35	500	125	14.54	17.24