From the article it looks a lot like an ActivMedia Pioneer with a SICK laser which you can control through Player/Stage and includes all of the mapping algrothims, still have to do work to make it work however.

This looks like a fairly standard reasearch project for undergrad student, player/stage is littered with uni students asking questions about using these type of modules

I am not suprised by the lack of accuracy in the shown map, you normally get a lot of errors due to the robot not accurately figuring out where it is everytime it turns even slightly. Onboard odometry is never that good.

If you want something slightly more cutting edge, yet still old look at the mapping out of something like Kurt3D

Am I the only one who thinks that people around here need to get over themselves? So /. posts an article about soemthing which turns out to be a hoax. They then post an article which explains the hoax and people go off at them for any number of reasons.

Slashdot should research their articles

Slashdot are stupid for believing the hoax

Slashdot have never acknowledged a hoax they wrote about before. Why are they doing it now?

Slashdot never gives any decent stories

Hemos sucks

To all of those who have complained about any of these things, i have one thing to say to you. Get over it. If you don't like Slashdot, don't come here. If you don't like a story, don't read it. If you're concerned about the validity of a story, check it up yourself.

Turning back to the topic at hand, I think this was a great hoax, considering the fact that it made various news pages, including this one, all around the world in the space of about a week. They managed to get 100,000 hits in a day, all as a result of one comment on usenet. It's success can be seen by the number of people acknowleging it on both this site and in other ways.

I also think that Slashdot should be commended for posting this article and having the ability to admit that they didn't entirely see it coming themselves.