SRI International Releases New Version of Karto™ Software for Mobile Robot Navigation
MENLO PARK, Calif. —October 8, 2009—SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research and development institute, today announced the release of version 1.1 of SRI's Karto™ Software Development Kit (SDK). Karto SDK is a comprehensive software solution for robotic navigation and mapping that incorporates some of the most advanced and robust algorithms for high-accuracy mapping and autonomous navigation and exploration.
This updated version of Karto adds two new modules to the robot navigation suite: a visual odometer module that enables a robot to use a single stereo camera as input to maintain relative position, and a network module that provides basic remote data transmission to the mapping module.
The visual odometer, which works best outdoors, only needs input from the stereo camera and does not require any information about the environment.
The network module provides basic remote data transmission to the mapping module. It allows a robot to send its odometry data and laser readings over a network. The module's main application is to enable a simple robot that does not have sufficient computation power to offload mapping computation.
"This new version of the Karto Software Development Kit offers users a faster navigation module with improved functions and speed gains of 10 times or more compared to earlier versions," said Regis Vincent, Ph.D., program manager in the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International.
In response to customer requests, new Karto SDK functionalities include:
- Manual loop closure
- Save and restore mapping
- Multi-device mapping that can be applied on the same robot or multiple robots
- Vector map support
- Multi-floor support coordinated to produce a coherent coordinate system across all floors
For additional information about KARTO SDK, visit: http://www.kartorobotics.com/
