Multi-robot collaboration for robust exploration

Abstract

This paper presents a new sensing modality and stratagem for multirobot exploration. The approach is based on using pairs of robots that observe each other's behavior, acting in concert to reduce odometry errors. We assume the robots can both directly sense nearby obstacles and see each other. This allows the robots to obtain a map of higher accuracy than would be possible with robots acting independently by reducing 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.