Hw/Sw co-design for fixed point EKF-SLAM

• Grant number: 12/03777-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science
• Principal Investigator: Vanderlei Bonato
• Grantee: Leandro de Souza Rosa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/20224-8 - A fixed-point EKF-SLAM hardware for embedded robotics, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Localization and mapping are two of most important capabilities of autonomous mobile robots and an important method for dealing with these problems is the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF - Extended Kalman Filter), which simultaneously maps the environment, estimating a model for this and robot's position. This problem is known in literature as SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping). In contrast, the EKF, is typically implemented using floating-point representations, possess a higher order computer ((n2)) where n is the number of elements on the map) so that, for large map, requires a computer system with high computational power to handle the solution of the SLAM-time navigation (online). To contour these restrictions, this project aims to implement a hardware architecture and software for the EKF-SLAM with fixed-point arithmetic in hardware / FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), allowing it to be embedded in mobile robots to take advantage better computational resources.