316 Copyright © 2012 Open Geospatial Consortium.
Fig. 102: 3D spatial master database for a shopping mall. This was generated from CityGML with Robotics ADE and used for the ubiquitous network robots services research project in Japan. The height of each floor is set up when turning the original 2D CAD data into 3D data in
the spatial master database. Thus, the heights of some equipment for example, furniture is not set up and is displayed in 2D. Also, the grid map with obstacles information generated by the grid map function of the spatial master database is attached to the ground on the floor
surface. The grid map consists of grid cells of a given size, and is color-coded depending on whether obstacles exist or not. Robots use these grid maps to recognize whether they can pass through each grid green=walls, yellow=pillars, blue=equipment, green floor=grid cells with
obstacles such as pillars and furniture, red floor=grid cells without obstacles.
In the research and development project, a demonstration experiment was conducted at a commercial facility in 2010. Fig. 103 shows the experiment conducted at a shopping mall. Robots provided services such as talking
with customers, showing customers around the store, and assisting with shopping. The shopping mall facility consists of multiple buildings, and services, in which robots move around inside and outside the buildings and
show customers around the store, were also experimented with.
Spatial master database information was converted into a grid map raster map format, and was provided to the robots by a server. The grid map is a PNG image format, and four types of grid maps are supported: obstacles,
flooring materials, floor slope, and floor bumps. The grid map is the flooring surface divided into grid cells of a given size and information for each grid cell is coded. The information of each grid cell is displayed by different
color pixels in an image format of grid map. The information about flooring materials, floor slope, and floor bumps is required because such items can become impassable obstacles depending on the functions and con-
straints of the robot-moving mechanism. In the shopping mall used for the demonstration experiment, there are some high-angle slopes in the hallway between buildings. Two different types of robots were used in the exper-
iment, one type was able to go over the slope and the other was not. The latter robot calls the former robot through a network and turned over the customer guidance, when it arrives at an impassable zone indicated in the
grid maps.
Pillar
Equipment Wall
Grid cells without obstacles
Grid cells with obstacles
Copyright © 2012 Open Geospatial Consortium. 317
Fig. 103: The scene from the demonstration experiment conducted at a shopping mall using a Robot Robovie-II by ATR in Japan source: Robovie II helps elderly customers in a supermarket, ©ATR Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International.
I.2 Overview of the Spatial Master Database
This section gives an overview of the spatial master databases used for network robots. When the data model for a spatial master database is constructed, the compatibility with CityGML LOD4 is
taken into consideration. Moreover, the concepts of flooring materials materialType, Storey, and door attributes doorOperationType, which are essential for mobile robots, are added. Section I.3 provides more details.
Fig. 104 shows the configuration of a spatial master database management system used in the demonstration experiment described in section I.1. This system imports information of a building, such as CAD data or
CityGML data, and stores it in spatial master database. And when converting it into a grid map, this system searches the targeted 3D objects and projects them onto a 2D floor surface. The next step is to divide it into grid,
designating floor number, floor area Boundary Box and grid size width and height that the floor surface is divided into. Finally, it generates PNG images whose pixel values are related to each grid information, such as
flooring materials or whether some obstacles exist or not. After converting the 3D model to this grid map, this system provides it to the Area management gateway server.
Fig. 104: Configuration of a spatial master database management system.
The shopping mall where the demonstration experiment was conducted consists of two buildings indoor and a hallway outdoor that connects the buildings shown in Fig. 105. The spatial master database mainly stores the
indoor spatial data, and stores outdoor spatial data only for the hallway. Fig. 106 shows an example of a gener- ated grid map for which the pixel values indicate flooring materials. The service providing the grid map is
developed as an extended WMS interface. This WMS interface is based on the work which was developed in “Outdoor and Indoor 3D Routing Services Engineering Report” cf. Sato 2009, OGC Doc. No. 09-067r2.
Area management GW server
Spatial Master Database management server
Spatial Master Database
Cache Cache
GridMap GridMap
GridMap GridMap
Grid Map Grid Map
HTTP Robot 1
Grid Map1
Robot 2
Grid Map2
a b
3D model CAD data
CityGML
318 Copyright © 2012 Open Geospatial Consortium.
Fig. 105: 3D model of a shopping mall, which consists of two buildings indoor and a hallway outdoor that connects the buildings.
Fig. 106: Example of generating a grid map b from spatial data a, when the grid map is flooring material.
I.3 Overview of the CityGML ADE
This section describes the implementation of the spatial master database explained in section I.2 by using CityGML. Specifically, this section shows UML diagrams and XML schemas for the data model of the Robotics
application schema that was implemented as two independent ADEs. The reason for preparing two ADEs is that there are two types of information which is needed for Ubiquitous Network Robots service. One ADE is for
more general information which can be used not only for robots service but also for indoor service. The other ADE is for information which is focused on robots service. The first ADE is the CityGML Standard Opening
ADE
, which is a schema extending the _Opening, Door, and Window classes of CityGML. The second ADE is the UNR Ubiquitous Network Robots ADE, which is a schema adding classes such as Storey and attributes such
as door type and floor materials that are essential for ubiquitous network robots. The purpose of this section is to provide an example showing how CityGML can be extended using multiple
ADEs. As the semantics of the specific attributes and object types, which are implemented as codelists, result from the Japanese national research project for Ubiquitous Network Robots services, they are not explained in
detail here. This section explains the Standard Opening ADE and UNR ADE. ADE details are explained in the CityGML Wiki see
http:www.citygmlwiki.orgindex.phpCityGML-ADEs . The XML Schema definition of
both ADEs together with example datasets and code lists can be additionally obtained from http:schemas.opengis.netcitygmlexamples2.0aderobotics-ade
.
a b
Plastic tile Carpet
Metal Concrete
Undefined
