Giving a Compass to a Robot - Probabilistic Techniques for Simultaneous Localisation and Map Building (SLAM) in Mobile Robotics

An important feature of an autonomous mobile robotic system is its ability to accurately localize itself while simultaneously constructing a map of its environment. This problem is complicated because of its chicken-and-egg nature: in order to determine its location the robot needs to know the map, and in order to build an accurate map the robot must know where it is. In addition, a robust system must account for the noise in odometry and sensor readings. This project explores the probabilistic methods of solving the SLAM problem using Rao-Blackwellisation.