SCOPE: Skeleton Graph-Based Computation-Efficient Framework for Autonomous UAV Exploration

Autonomous exploration in unknown environments is key for mobile robots, helping them perceive, map, and make decisions in complex areas. However, current methods often rely on frequent global optimization, suffering from high computational latency and trajectory oscillation, especially on resource-constrained edge devices. To address these limitations, we propose SCOPE, a novel framework that incrementally constructs a real-time skeletal graph and introduces Implicit Unknown Region Analysis for efficient spatial reasoning. The planning layer adopts a hierarchical on-demand strategy: the Proximal Planner generates smooth, high-frequency local trajectories, while the Region-Sequence Planner is activated only when necessary to optimize global visitation order. Comparative evaluations in simulation demonstrate that SCOPE achieves competitive exploration performance comparable to state-of-the-art global planners, while reducing computational cost by an average of 86.9%. Real-world experiments further validate the system's robustness and low latency in practical scenarios.

Range-SLAM: Ultra-Wideband-Based Smoke-Resistant Real-Time Localization and Mapping

This paper presents Range-SLAM, a real-time, lightweight SLAM system designed to address the challenges of localization and mapping in environments with smoke and other harsh conditions using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) signals. While optical sensors like LiDAR and cameras struggle in low-visibility environments, UWB signals provide a robust alternative for real-time positioning. The proposed system uses general UWB devices to achieve accurate mapping and localization without relying on expensive LiDAR or other dedicated hardware. By utilizing only the distance and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) provided by UWB sensors in relation to anchors, we combine the motion of the tag-carrying agent with raycasting algorithm to construct a 2D occupancy grid map in real time. To enhance localization in challenging conditions, a Weighted Least Squares (WLS) method is employed. Extensive real-world experiments, including smoke-filled environments and simulated

LVCP: LiDAR-Vision Tightly Coupled Collaborative Real-time Relative Positioning

In air-ground collaboration scenarios without GPS and prior maps, the relative positioning of drones and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) has always been a challenge. For a drone equipped with monocular camera and an UGV equipped with LiDAR as an external sensor, we propose a robust and real-time relative pose estimation method (LVCP) based on the tight coupling of vision and LiDAR point cloud information, which does not require prior information such as maps or precise initial poses. Given that large-scale point clouds generated by 3D sensors has more accurate spatial geometric information than the feature point cloud generated by image, we utilize LiDAR point clouds to correct the drift in visual-inertial odometry (VIO) when the camera undergoes significant shaking or the IMU has a low signal-to-noise ratio. To achieve this, we propose a novel coarse-to-fine framework for LiDAR-vision collaborative localization. In this framework, we construct point-plane association based on spatial geometric information, and innovatively construct a point-aided Bundle Adjustment (BA) problem as the backend to simultaneously estimate the relative pose of the camera and LiDAR and correct the VIO drift. In this process, we propose a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based sampling algorithm to complete the coarse estimation of the current camera-LiDAR pose. In this process, the initial pose of the camera used for sampling is obtained based on VIO propagation, and the valid feature-plane association number (VFPN) is used to trigger PSO-sampling process. Additionally, we propose a method that combines Structure from Motion (SFM) and multi-level sampling to initialize the algorithm, addressing the challenge of lacking initial values.