How SOUTH explores the great indoors
By: Jing Liu
SOUTH is building an indoor mapping system for large hubs including airports, shopping malls, and conference halls through its navigation and guidance apps on computers and mobile devices. By collecting and processing extensive indoor sensor data, then accurately rendering it on a 2D basemap, SOUTH’s indoor maps brings geospatial context to large spaces and the key POIs within them.
SOUTH’s indoor mapping solution is created by the following:
- An indoor scanning robot — Indoor Mobile Mapping System (IMMS) — collects indoor point cloud data and images of the entire venue using multiple sensors. (One long-range multi-layer laser scanner, three high-resolution single layer laser scanners, six panoramic cameras, several wifi/bluetooth signal receivers, and inertial navigation system.) The indoor map is then created by merging sensor data with 6D SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), which localizes the robot’s precise location along the x, y, and z coordinates, and the roll, yaw, and pitch angles.
2. Engineers verify collected data before processing into derivatives that can be rendered on top of the base map. Reconstruction may be necessary if data collected does not pass through QA.
3. Once data is verified, the indoor map can then be displayed through model apps, allowing end-users to navigate accurately within the venue.
In addition to serving as the base map, Mapbox provides the platform for displaying POIs and eye-level imagery for indoor navigation, birds-eye views of floors, and routing.
“Although its main function is indoor mapping, it isn’t good enough without a base map. With many open-source tools, we feel comfortable integrating Mapbox and our indoor mapping system together, and were able to do so with little increase in the app’s size.”
— Jing Ye, Technology Manager, SOUTH
Creating a solution to display markers indoors makes it easier to facilitate inter-departmental work and inspection from agencies. Through this new experience, customers are now able to visualize indoor spaces with clear perspective across web and mobile.
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Jing Liu - Social Media Operations - Mapbox | LinkedIn
Indoor mapping with robots and POIs was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.