Leveraging WiFi for Robust and Resource-Efficient SLAM

Learn about innovative approaches to indoor robot navigation in this technical talk that explores WiFi-based solutions for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Discover how WiFi radios can function as camera-like sensors to overcome common challenges in visual sensing systems, including perceptual aliasing, dynamic environments, and lighting variations. Explore a real-time SLAM system implementation using off-the-shelf components, demonstrated across four large-scale datasets in three indoor environments covering over 1500m of travel distance. Examine the significant advantages of WiFi-based sensing, including a 6x improvement over traditional odometry and a 4x reduction in computational resources compared to Visual and Lidar SLAM systems. Gain insights from Dr. Aditya Arun, a wireless systems engineer at Skydio, who shares his expertise in developing robust communications and sensing systems for practical robotics applications in challenging environments.