Patent ID: 7177737

Claim:
A method of autonomous localization and mapping, the method comprising: visually observing an environment via a visual sensor; maintaining a map of landmarks in a data store, where the map of landmarks is based at least in part on visual observations of the environment; receiving data from a dead reckoning sensor, where data from the dead reckoning sensor relates to movement of the visual sensor within the environment; using data from the dead reckoning sensor and a prior pose estimate to predict a new device pose in a global reference frame at least partly in response to a determination that a known landmark has not been encountered; and using data from the visual sensor to predict a new device pose in the global reference frame at least partly in response to a determination that a known landmark has been recognized, where the new device pose estimate is based at least in part on a previous pose estimate associated with the known landmark and using the visual sensor data to update one or more maps.