IEEE 1873-2015: A Standard for Map Data Representation

The availability of maps of environments in which they operate enables several tasks for autonomous robots. A new IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s standard, IEEE 1873-2015 Robot Map Data Representation for Navigation, defines a common representation for two-dimensional robot maps and is intended to facilitate interoperability among navigating robots. The standard defines an XML data format for exchanging maps between different systems. This article illustrates how metric maps, topological maps, and their combinations can be represented according to the standard.