New system allows robots to continuously map their environment
From: MIT News - 02/16/2012
By: Helen Knight

Robots could one day navigate through constantly changing surroundings with
virtually no input from humans, thanks to a system that allows them to build
and continuously update a three-dimensional map of their environment using a
low-cost camera such as Microsoft's Kinect.

The system, being developed by researchers at MIT's Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), could also allow blind people to
make their way unaided through crowded buildings such as hospitals and
shopping malls.  

The team tested the system on a robotic wheelchair, a PR2 robot developed by
Willow Garage in Menlo Park, CA, and in a portable sensor suit worn by a
human volunteer. They found it could locate itself within a 3-D map of its
surroundings while traveling at up to 1.5 meters per second.  

Read the entire article at:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/simultaneous-localization-mapping-kinect-0216.html

Links:
Robotic wheelchair
http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10010451-3.html

Autonomous Wheelchair (with video)
http://www.csail.mit.edu/videoarchive/research/robo/autonomous-wheelchair

Related:
Kinect Hack Lends a Hand to Shoppers in Wheelchairs
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/26866/

Kinect integrates the robot and saves $ 7,000 in sensors
http://www.suchpost.com/personal-computing/robots/mit-kinect-integrates-the-robot-and-saves-7000-in-sensors.htm