Radio SLAM: A Review on Radio-Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Abstract

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm has enabled the automation of mobile robots in unknown environments. It enables the robot to navigate through an unknown trajectory by employing sensors that provide measurements to infer the surrounding environment and use this information to localize the robot. Sensor technology plays a key role in defining the quality of measurements as it affects the overall performance of SLAM. While visual sensors, like cameras, can capture rich features of the environment, they, however, fail to work in low-light conditions. On the other hand, radio frequency sensors are invariant to light conditions, however, high-frequency signals such as millimeter wave (mm-wave) are prone to severe channel attenuation, therefore, they are suitable for short-range indoor applications. Despite the high localization accuracy that the mm-wave frequency band has to offer, its shortcomings have limited the amount of research work carried out to enhance the performance of SLAM. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an overview of the recent developments in radio SLAM, with a specific focus on mm-wave enabled localization and SLAM methods. However, some notable research work based on other radio frequency sensors has also been discussed. In addition, we highlight the role of deep learning-based methods for localization and identify some of the key challenges in data-driven implementation.