Patent ID: 7516039

Claim:
A system for mapping, the system comprising: a rangefinder adapted to output range measurements; an inertial sensor adapted to capture inertial measurements including inertial forces acting on the rangefinder and the attitude of the rangefinder; a processor coupled to the rangefinder and the inertial sensor, wherein the processor is adapted to receive a set of range measurements from the rangefinder and inertial measurements from the inertial sensor, is adapted to produce a virtual room reconstruction based on the set of range measurements from the range finder and inertial measurements from the inertial sensor, and wherein the processor is further adapted to produce a virtual room reconstruction of a physical room based on minimizing an error function E = ∑ i ⁢ ( a i - a i ′ ) 2 σ a 2 + ∑ j ⁢ ω j - ω j ′ σ ω 2 + ∑ k ⁢ ( d k - d k ′ ) σ d 2 ( 1 ) wherein, a′ i is a model approximation for acceleration a i measured by the inertial sensor, ω′ j is a model approximation for the output ω j of a gyro-rate measured by the inertial sensor, and d′ k is a model approximation for a distance to a wall d′ k as measured by the rangefinder.