Model building and autonomous exploration
Peter Whaite, Frank P. Ferrie · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1993
We define autonomous exploration as a process by which an active observer can interact with its surroundings, e.g., by intentionally moving around and collecting information, in order to learn about its environment. Such an ability is essential for autonomous systems that must operate in unstructured environments, i.e., where it is difficult (if not impossible) to characterize the environment beforehand. This paper describes a working system that implements an autonomous explorer whose function is to describe the environment in terms of articulated volumetric models. A novel feature of the system is that it uses feedback to reduce reliance on a priori knowledge.