Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decentralized Cooperative SLAM for Sparsely-Communicating Robot Networks: A Centralized-Equivalent Approach

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Communication between robots is key to performance in cooperative multi-robot systems. In practice, communication connections for information exchange between all robots are not always guaranteed, which adds difficulty in performing state estimation. This paper examines the decentralized cooperative simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem, in which each robot is required to estimate the map and all robot states under a sparsely-communicating and dynamic network. We show how the exact, centralized-equivalent estimate can be obtained by all robots in the network in a decentralized manner even when the network is never fully connected. Furthermore, a robot only needs to consider its own knowledge of the network topology in order to detect when the centralized-equivalent estimate is obtainable. Our approach is validated through more than 250 min of hardware experiments using a team of real robots. The resulting estimates are compared against accurate groundtruth data for all robot poses and landmark positions. In addition, we examined the effects of communication range limit on our algorithm’s performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kurazume, R., Hirose, S.: An experimental study of a cooperative positioning system. Auton. Robots 8(1), 43–52 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Roumeliotis, S.I., Bekey, G.A.: Distributed multirobot localization. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 18(5), 781–795 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Roumeliotis S.I., Rekleitis, I.M.: Propagation of uncertainty in cooperative multirobot localization: analysis and experimental results. Auton. Robots 17(1), 41–54 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Leung, K.Y.K., Barfoot, T.D., Liu, H.H.T.: Decentralized localization of sparsely-communicating robot networks: a centralized-equivalent approach. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 26(1), 62–77 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Nerurkar, E., Roumeliotis, S.: Asynchronous multi-centralized cooperative localization. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2010)

  6. Leung, K.Y.K., Barfoot, T.D., Liu, H.H.T.: Decentralized simultaneous localization and mapping for dynamic and sparse robot networks. In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2010)

  7. Bar-Shalom, Y.: Update with out-of-sequence measurements in tracking: exact solution. IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst. 38(3), 769–777 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bar-Shalom, Y., Chen, H., Mallick, M.: One-step solution for the multistep out-of-sequence-measurement problem in tracking. IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst. 40(1), 27–37 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Capitán, J., Merino, L., Caballero, F., Ollero, A.: Delayed-state information filter for cooperative decentralized tracking. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3865–3870 (2009)

  10. Stachniss, C.: Exploration and Mapping with Mobile Robots. PhD thesis, Universitt Freiburg (2006)

  11. Howard, A., Mataric, M.J., Sukhatme, G.S.: Putting the ‘i’ in ‘team’: an ego-centric approach to cooperative localization. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2003)

  12. Fenwick, J.W., Newman, P.M., Leonard, J.J.: Cooperative concurrent mapping and localization. In: IEEE International Conferernce on Robotics and Automation (2002)

  13. Nettleton, E.W., Durrant-Whyte, H.F., Gibbens, P.W., Goktogan, A.H.: Multiple platform localisation and map building. Proc. SPIE 4196, 337–347 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Rosencrantz, M., Gordon, G., Thrun, S.: Decentralized sensor fusion with distributed particle filters. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (2003)

  15. Nettleton, E., Thrun, S., Durrant-Whyte, H., Sukkarieh, S.: Decentralised slam with low-bandwidth communication for teams of vehicles. Field & Service Robotic 24, 179–188 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Reece, S., Roberts, S.: Robust, low-bandwidth, multi-vehicle mapping. In: IEEE FUSION (2005)

  17. Thrun, S., Liu, Y., Koller, D., Ng, A., Ghahramani, Z., Durrant-Whyte, H.: Simultaneous localization and mapping with sparse extended information filters. Int. J. Rob. Res. 23, 693 2004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ko, J., Stewart, B., Fox, D., Konolige, K., Limketkai, B.: A practical, decision-theoretic approach to multi-robot mapping and exploration. In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2003)

  19. Zhou, X.S., Roumeliotis, S.I.: Multi-robot slam with unknown initial correspondence: The robot rendezvous case. In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2006)

  20. Wang, Z., Huang, S., Dissanayake, G.: Multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping using d-slam framework. In: IEEE ISSNIP (2007)

  21. Howard, A., Sukhatme, G.S., Matarić, M.J.: Multirobot simultaneous localization and mapping using manifold representations. IEEE Special Issue on Multi-Robot Systems 94(9), 1360–1369 2006

    Google Scholar 

  22. Howard, A.: Multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping using particle filters. Int. J. Rob. Res. 25(12), 1243–1256 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Simon, D.: Optimal State Estimation. Wiley, New York (2006)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  24. Windolf, M., Götzen, N., Morlock, M.: Systematic accuracy and precision analysis of video motion capturing systems—exemplified on the vicon-460 system. J. Biomech. 41(12), 2776–2780 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Gerkey, B., Vaughan, R.T., Howard, A.: The player/stage project: tools for multi-robot and distributed sensor systems. In: International Conference on Advanced Robotics, pp. 317–323 (2003)

  26. Leung, K.Y.K., Halpern, Y., Barfoot, T.D., Liu, H.H.T.: The UTIAS multi-robot cooperative localization and mapping dataset. Int. J. Rob. Res. 30:969–974 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Krishnamachari, B., Wicker, S.B., Bejar, R.: Phase transition phenomena in wireless ad hoc networks. In: IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (2001)

  28. Leung, K.Y.K., Barfoot, T.D., Liu, H.H.T.: Distributed and decentralized cooperative simultaneous localization and mapping for dynamic and sparse robot networks. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2011)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, 4925 Dufferin St., Toronto, ON, M3H 5T6, Canada

    Keith Y. K. Leung, Timothy D. Barfoot & Hugh H. T. Liu

Authors
  1. Keith Y. K. Leung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timothy D. Barfoot
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hugh H. T. Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keith Y. K. Leung.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Leung, K.Y.K., Barfoot, T.D. & Liu, H.H.T. Decentralized Cooperative SLAM for Sparsely-Communicating Robot Networks: A Centralized-Equivalent Approach. J Intell Robot Syst 66, 321–342 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9620-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9620-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation