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Frontier-Graph Exploration for Multi-robot Systems in an Unknown Indoor Environment

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Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 7

Abstract

We present a new method for single/multiple robot indoor exploration and mapping. The algorithm combines local Frontier-based exploration technique and global graph-based representation of the environment to produce a robust autonomous exploration strategy. This graph is used and shared to allow cooperative exploration. Our implementation is fully decentralised and has no central control to organise the robots, it is also robust to failures both in communications and robot attrition. Our approach has been demonstrated to work on a team of two Pioneer 3AT robots in an area of 50m2. In the simulator it has been successfully scaled to a team of five robots in a map of over a hundred rooms and an area of 5000m2.

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Tokyo

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Gossage, M., New, A.P., Cheng, C.K. (2006). Frontier-Graph Exploration for Multi-robot Systems in an Unknown Indoor Environment. In: Gini, M., Voyles, R. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 7. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo

  • Print ISBN: 978-4-431-35878-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-4-431-35881-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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