Monte Carlo Localization for Robots

Recently I started to read the excellent book Probabilistic Robotics by Sebastian Thrun, Wolfram Burgard, and Dieter Fox and got intrigued by Monte Carlo Localization (MCL). The MCL algorithm fully takes into account the uncertainty associated with drive commands and sensor measurements and allows a robot to locate itself in an environment provided a map is available.

In order to make sure that I really understand the algorithm I decided to implement it myself. Furthermore I did not find a readily accessible, standalone open source implementation that would allow me to exercise the algorithm in a simulated environment. Covering the resulting implementation is a bit too big for this blog. Instead I decided to add a multi-part article to my web site. You can find it here: Monte Carlo Localization for Robots

MCLSimulationSmall

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