In this paper we analyze hybrid scan matching algorithms
and we test their performances in typical mobile applica-
tions. Since the genetic algorithm is robust but not very
accurate, and ICP is accurate but not very robust, it is nat-
ural to use the two algorithms in a cascade fashion: rst we
run a genetic optimization to nd an approximate but ro-
bust matching solution and then we run the Iterative Clos-
est Point (ICP) algorithm to increase the accuracy. The
proposed genetic algorithm is very fast due to a look-up ta-
ble formulation and very robust against large errors in both
distance and angle during scan data acquisition. It is worth
mentioning that large scan errors arise very commonly in
mobile object applications due, for instance, to wheel slip-
page or when closing loops. We show experimentally that
the proposed algorithm successfully copes with large local-
ization errors.
