Graph-based distributed cooperative navigation

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of distributed cooperative navigation. A new graph-based method is developed for on-demand calculation of the required correlation terms, considering a general multi-robot measurement model. These correlation terms are necessary for the consistent EKF-based data fusion when several statistically-dependent sources of information are used. The measurement model relates between the navigation information transmitted by any number of robots and the actual readings taken by the available onboard sensors. The transmitted information is not necessarily of the current time instant, but may actually belong to some time instant from the past. Experiment results and a theoretical example of the developed method are presented considering a three-view measurement, formulated upon receiving three images of the same scene, captured by different robots at different a priori unknown time instances.