Using Registration with Fourier-SOFT in 2D (FS2D) for Robust Scan Matching of Sonar Range Data

In this paper, we introduce Fourier-SOFT 2D (FS2D) as a new robust registration method. FS2D operates in the frequency domain where it exploits the well-known decoupling of rotation and translation. The challenging part of determining the rotation parameter is solved here based on a projection of the Fourier magnitude on a sphere and the SO(3) Fourier Transform (SOFT). The underlying use case is underwater mapping with sonar, i.e., with very noisy and partially overlapping environment data under non-trivial localization and navigation challenges. Fourier-SOFT 2D is compared with openly available registration methods on two real-world datasets and a simulated dataset. Results show the robustness of FS2D, i.e., its capabilities to handle large amounts of noise and occlusions of consecutive scans. The implementation in C++ is openly available.