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Multi-robot collaboration for robust exploration

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Abstract

This paper presents a new sensing modality for multirobot exploration. The approach is based on using a pair of robots that observe each other, and act in concert to reduce odometry errors. We assume the robots can both directly sense nearby obstacles and see each other. The proposed approach improves the quality of the map by reducing the inaccuracies that occur over time from dead reckoning errors. Furthermore, by exploiting the ability of the robots to see each other, we can detect opaque obstacles in the environment independently of their surface reflectance properties. Two different algorithms, based on the size of the environment, are introduced, with a complexity analysis, and experimental results in simulation and with real robots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, 3480 University St., Montreal, Québec, Canada, H3A 2A7

    Ioannis Rekleitis & Gregory Dudek

  2. Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 6050 University Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 1W5

    Evangelos Milios

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  1. Ioannis Rekleitis
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  2. Gregory Dudek
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  3. Evangelos Milios
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Rekleitis, I., Dudek, G. & Milios, E. Multi-robot collaboration for robust exploration. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 31, 7–40 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016636024246

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