Scan matching, the problem of registering two laser scans in order to determine the relative positions from which the scans were obtained, is one of the most heavily relied-upon tools for mobile robots. The design of current algorithms is strongly influenced by the need for real-time operation: heuristics are employed in order to reduce the complexity of the search. Of course, these heuristics are imperfect, and can result in poor results--- especially in cases where the prior is weak or absent.
@inproceedings{olson2009icra,
AUTHOR = {Edwin Olson},
TITLE = {Real-Time Correlative Scan Matching},
BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the {IEEE} International Conference on Robotics and
Automation ({ICRA})},
YEAR = {2009},
MONTH = {June},
ADDRESS = {Kobe, Japan},
PAGES = {4387--4393},
PUBLISHER = {IEEE},
}