Multi-Layered Conceptual Spatial Mapping for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Control Mechanisms for Spatial Knowledge Processing in Cognitive / Intelligent Systems

Volume

Papers from the 2007 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

This paper presents an approach to spatial mapping for autonomous mobile robots that are to operate among, and interact with, non-expert human users. We argue that our approach of conceptual spatial mapping helps bridge the gap between the representations needed for low-level control of the robot, and the conceptual-topological representations of space humans have. Our approach maintains spatial knowledge on multiple interconnected layers. We show that a process for map acquisition, human-augmented mapping, which combines bottom-up and top-down influences from different modalities, will yield a rich multi-layered spatial representation. This representation enables the robot to perform complex actions in a human-populated environment. We show that our approach can be used to establish a notion of situational and functional awareness.