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}, }