Map-less Navigation

A class of robotic and assistive navigation techniques that do not require a pre-built environmental map or installed infrastructure such as Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, ultra-wideband anchors, or visual fiducials. Map-less systems instead rely on on-board sensors (LiDAR, RGB-D cameras, IMUs) and online algorithms such as simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM), waypoint detection on a real-time cost map, and computer-vision scene understanding to navigate previously unseen environments. For accessibility, map-less navigation is significant because pre-mapping every museum, mall, station, or workplace is economically and operationally infeasible; map-less guide systems are therefore a prerequisite for scalable accessible indoor navigation.