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A PHD Filter Based Localization System for Robotic Swarms

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Abstract

In this paper, we present a Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) filter based relative localization system for robotic swarms. The system is designed to use only local information collected by onboard lidar and camera sensors to identify and track other swarm members within proximity. The multi-sensor setup of the system accounts for the inability of single sensors to provide enough information for the simultaneous identification of teammates and estimation of their position. However, it also requires the implementation of sensor fusion techniques that do not employ complex computer vision or recognition algorithms, due to robots’ limited computational capabilities. The use of the PHD filter is fostered by its inherent multi-sensor setup. Moreover, it aligns well with the overall goal of this localization system and swarm setup that does not require the association of a unique identifier to each team member. The system was tested on a team of four robots.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant RII Track-2 FEC 1923004.

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Correspondence to R. A. Thivanka Perera .

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Thivanka Perera, R.A., Yuan, C., Stegagno, P. (2022). A PHD Filter Based Localization System for Robotic Swarms. In: Matsuno, F., Azuma, Si., Yamamoto, M. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. DARS 2021. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92790-5_14

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