SHIELD: Efficient LiDAR-based Drone Exploration
Analysis
This paper addresses the challenges of using LiDAR for drone exploration, specifically focusing on the limitations of point cloud quality, computational burden, and safety in open areas. The proposed SHIELD method offers a novel approach by integrating an observation-quality occupancy map, a hybrid frontier method, and a spherical-projection ray-casting strategy. This is significant because it aims to improve both the efficiency and safety of drone exploration using LiDAR, which is crucial for applications like search and rescue or environmental monitoring. The open-sourcing of the work further benefits the research community.
Key Takeaways
- •Proposes SHIELD, a novel method for LiDAR-based drone exploration.
- •Addresses challenges related to point cloud quality, computational burden, and safety.
- •Integrates an observation-quality occupancy map, hybrid frontier method, and spherical-projection ray-casting.
- •Aims to improve both efficiency and safety of drone exploration.
- •Open-sourced to benefit the research community.
“SHIELD maintains an observation-quality occupancy map and performs ray-casting on this map to address the issue of inconsistent point-cloud quality during exploration.”