On the representation of fuzzy spatial relations in robot maps

Spatial directional relations, like "north of," play an important role in the modeling of the environment by an autonomous robot. We propose an approach to represent spatial relations grounded in fuzzy set theory and fuzzy mathematical morphology. We show how this approach can be applied to robot maps, and suggest that these relations can be used for self-localization and for reasoning about the environment. We illustrate our approach on real data collected by a mobile robot in an office environment.