The dynamic nature of the real world is one of the main challenges in robotics. The first step in dealing with it is to detect which parts of the world are dynamic. A typical benchmark task is to create a map that contains only the static part of the world to support, for example, localization and planning. Current solutions are often applied in post-processing, where parameter tuning allows the user to adjust the setting for a specific dataset. In this paper, we propose DUFOMap, a novel dynamic awareness mapping framework designed for efficient online processing. Despite having the same parameter settings for all scenarios, it performs better or is on par with state-of-the-art methods. Ray casting is utilized to identify and classify fully observed empty regions. Since these regions have been observed empty, it follows that anything inside them at another time must be dynamic. Evaluation is carried out in various scenarios, including outdoor environments in KITTI and Argoverse 2, open areas on the KTH campus, and with different sensor types. DUFOMap outperforms the state of the art in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. The source code, benchmarks, and links to the datasets utilized are provided. See https://kth-rpl.github.io/dufomap for more details.

In environments like offices, the duration of a robot's navigation between two locations may vary over time. For instance, reaching a kitchen may take more time during lunchtime since the corridors are crowded with people heading the same way. In this work, we address the problem of routing in such environments with tasks expressed in Metric Interval Temporal Logic (MITL) - a rich robot task specification language that allows us to capture explicit time requirements. Our objective is to find a strategy that maximizes the temporal robustness of the robot's MITL task. As the first step towards a solution, we define a Mixed-integer linear programming approach to solving the task planning problem over a Varying Weighted Transition System, where navigation durations are deterministic but vary depending on the time of day. Then, we apply this planner to optimize for MITL temporal robustness in Markov Decision Processes, where the navigation durations between physical locations are uncertain, but the time-dependent distribution over possible delays is known. Finally, we develop a receding horizon planner for Markov Decision Processes that preserves guarantees over MITL temporal robustness. We show the scalability of our planning algorithms in simulations of robotic tasks.

In the field of robotics, the point cloud has become an essential map representation. From the perspective of downstream tasks like localization and global path planning, points corresponding to dynamic objects will adversely affect their performance. Existing methods for removing dynamic points in point clouds often lack clarity in comparative evaluations and comprehensive analysis. Therefore, we propose an easy-to-extend unified benchmarking framework for evaluating techniques for removing dynamic points in maps. It includes refactored state-of-art methods and novel metrics to analyze the limitations of these approaches. This enables researchers to dive deep into the underlying reasons behind these limitations. The benchmark makes use of several datasets with different sensor types. All the code and datasets related to our study are publicly available for further development and utilization.